BACOLOD City – Following the national directive as well as the mandates of other localities in Western Visayas, this city has also allowed the optional wearing of facemasks in open spaces and crowded outdoor areas with good ventilation.
However, based on Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez’s Executive Order (EO) No. 033, facemasks must still be worn in indoor private or public establishments, including public transportation by land, air, or sea, and in outdoor settings where physical distance cannot be maintained.
It added, “The wearing of facemasks at hospitals and other medical facilities, laboratories, quarantine facilities and the likes, shall be mandatory.”
The minimum public health standards (MPHS) intended to prevent and minimize the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the country, according to the mayor, will continue to be implemented in accordance with the principles of shared accountability, evidence-based decision making, socioeconomic equity, and a rights-based approach.
The mayor issued the order after President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. issued EO No. 03, series of 2022, allowing for the voluntary wearing of the facemask in outdoor settings and reiterating the continued implementation of minimum public health standards during the state of public health emergency relative to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF), through its Resolution No. 1, series of 2022, recommended liberalizing the mask mandate by amending the guidelines and making the wearing of facemasks optional in open spaces or non-crowded outdoor areas with good ventilation.
But senior citizens and immunocompromised individuals are highly encouraged to wear their facemasks./PN
