THE Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) approved on Thursday, November 4, 2021, the recommendation to downgrade the National Capital Region’s (NCR) alert level status to Alert Level 2, according to Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque.
The new alert level classification started today, November 5, 2021 and will be in effect until November 21, 2021.
Also approved, according to Roque, is the recommendation of the sub-Technical Working Group on Data Analytics to base the alert level assignments on data that is nearest to the implementation date.
This means starting December 1, 2021, alert level assignments shall be determined during the 15th and 30th of the month. As for escalations on alert levels, Roque said this may be done at any time in the middle of the implementation period as warranted while de-escalations can only be done at the end of the 2-week assessment period.
The IATF also directed the National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF), together with the Regional Task Forces and Regional IATFs, to provide weekly feedback on the progress and implementation on all areas identified for Alert Level System roll-out to the IATF.
Also, the IATF amended the Guidelines on the Implementation of Alert Levels System for COVID-19 Response in Pilot Areas to clarify the allowed movement of persons under varying alert levels.
Meanwhile, to measure the success of the implementation of the NTF-approved Phase IV of the National Action Plan Against COVID-19 (NAP Phase IV), the following recovery indices shall be used.
For Infection Management, the indices are the number of severe and critical cases per month, time gap from detection to isolation, and tests per case.
For the Vaccine Roll-out, the indices are the total vaccines administered per capita, new vaccine doses administered per capita, and fully vaccinated individuals.
Finally, for Socio-Economic Recovery, the indices are the Purchasing Managers’ Index by IHS Markit, google mobility to retail and recreation, and number of commercial airline passengers.