Not yet time to get rid of face shields: Duque

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Thursday that it is not yet time to lift the policy on mandatory wearing of face shields in public areas, noting the country’s COVID-19 vaccine coverage is still low.

“Okay [ang] mungkahi ni Mayor Isko kung malaki na vaccination coverage natin (Mayor Isko’s proposal would be okay if we had a wide vaccination coverage),” Duque told GMA News in a text message.

“Hindi pa pwedeng tanggalin ang face shield policy (We can’t drop the face shield policy) for now when our two-dose vaccination coverage is a little over 2% due to still inadequate vaccine supply,” he added.

Manila Mayor Isko Moreno Wednesday called on the government to stop requiring the public to wear face shields.

“Tayo na lang yata sa buong mundo ang nagre-require ng face shield sa kalsada. Dapat pag-isipan ulit ito. Marami na tayong natutuhan. We should adjust,” Moreno said in a statement.

(We are the only country in the world that still requires wearing a face shield outside. We should rethink this. We have learned a lot. We should adjust.)

The mayor said face shields should only be worn inside hospitals.

Not yet time to get rid of face shields: Duque

The DOH said several memorandums had clarified that people engaged in “strenuous activities/work, fine workmanship, operation of transportation vehicles, and active transport are exempted from wearing face shields” since these could cause “possible vision impairment.”

Meanwhile, the 50,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccines from Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute arrived on Sunday, May 30, 2021, at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 onboard Qatar Airways Flight QR928.

According to the Department of Health, the efficacy of Sputnik V against symptomatic COVID-19 is 91.6 percent, while it can prevent moderate and severe cases from 100 percent.

However, the vaccine could not be given to 17-year-olds and under, FDA director-general Eric Domingo said earlier.

The government targets to vaccinate 58 million of the country’s population before the end of the year to achieve population protection against COVID-19. As of the last record, more than 5 million doses of COVID-19 have been injected, including 3.9 million first doses. More than 1.2 million have completed 2 doses of the vaccine.