An elderly woman wearing a face shield boards a bus in Manila. (AFP File Photo)
MANILA, Philippines 鈥� Independent pandemic monitor Octa Research does not recommend the use of face shields so far despite the slight uptick in the Covid-19 positivity rate following the entry of the Omicron 聽variant in the country.
Octa Research fellow Dr. Guido David on Saturday explained that they support face shield use should a surge of COVID-19 infections be observed.
鈥淒uring a surge naman, sinupport naman namin 鈥榶ung paggamit ng face shield dahil siguro kahit papa鈥檔o baka may added layer of protection 鈥榶an,鈥� David said on Teleradyo Balita.
(During a surge, we supported the use of face shield because it may add another layer of protection.)
鈥淧ero sa ngayon, hindi pa naman siguro kailangan 鈥榶an,鈥� he continued.
(Currently, I think it is not needed yet.)
The fellow said that the Philippines is far from having a serious surge as of now.
鈥淢alayo pa naman tayo umabot sa medyo malalang surge sa ngayon kahit na magkaroon ng uptick kasi napakababa ng bilang ng kaso natin,鈥� he noted.
(We are far from reaching a serious surge as of now despite the uptick because our daily cases are low.)
鈥淚 mean, kung umabot tayo sa mga a few thousand cases per day mula ngayon sa mga [200] to 300 eh medyo magiging serious na talaga 鈥榶ung usapan dito. Pero sa ngayon, hindi pa naman agad-agad aabot tayo sa sitwasyon na may mga a few thousand cases per day tayo,鈥� he further expounded.
(If we hit a few thousand cases per day from the current 200 to 300, we would have a serious discussion about that. But, as of now, we will not immediately reach a situation with a few thousand cases per day.)
The Department of Health on Friday noted that the Philippines鈥� COVID-19 positivity rate increased anew at 1.4 percent.
To date, the government has recorded three cases of the Omicron variant in the country.
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