Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 25) — The Department of Health (DOH) said a meeting with members of the Inter-Agency Task Force on COVID-19 (IATF) is tentatively set for Feb. 1 to discuss the separation or decoupling of restrictions from alert levels.
At a briefing on Wednesday, DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said so far members of the task force have been unable to set a date to discuss matters concerning the issue of decoupling.
“Hanggang sa ngayon hindi tayo makakuha ng quorum sa inter-agency task force kaya hindi pa natutuloy ang aming meet up for this year. But we have a tentative schedule on Feb. 1,” said Vergeire.
In November last year, the DOH said it would recommend the decoupling restrictions from alert levels to make them similar to how the state weather bureau uses storm signals.
“Ang main objective is to give a warning para alam ng public [so that the public will know] how they are going to respond based on their informed decision depending on the given alert level,” Vergeire explained.
She said the goal was to redirect the objective of the COVID-19 alert level system, and not to revise its indicators.
A survey done by the Department of the Interior and Local Government regarding the plan will be discussed in the meeting as well, Vergeire added.
