The Department of Health is recommending the wearing of face masks until the end of 2022. Health Spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire said that masks protect people not only from COVID-19 but also from other diseases.
“As part of the Department of Health and a medical doctor, I would say that I would still recommend until the end of the year,” Vergeire said in an interview with ABS-CBN News.
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“You know the mask did not only protect us against COVID-19. It also protected us from other respiratory infections, even with this monkeypox. This disease, we can be protected from monkeypox by just wearing the mask,” she continued.
Vergeire also hit the ‘optional’ wearing of face mask policy of Cebu Province reiterating that a person can only remove masks when eating or drinking.
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“Ang sinasabi po natin ngayon if you as a local government would announce that to the public, that might be very risky, especially now that we are having this increase in cases, especially now that sub variants have entered the country, especially now that the country has waning immunity,” she explained.
“So, this is something that would be perceived na baka pwedeng maluwag na maluwag na dito sa ating lugar and that might be so risky for their population,” the health official added.
