The Puerto Princesa City Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) said it will not release new Alert Level 3 guidelines for the meantime, and will instead adapt the omnibus guidelines prescribed by the national IATF.
The omnibus guidelines recommend business closures for amusement and entertainment establishments, reducing the onsite workforce for government offices to 60 percent, and reducing venue capacities to 30 percent for indoor dining and 50 percent for outdoor dining establishments.
Puerto Princesa City was placed by the national IATF under Alert Level 3 last January 21 until January 31.
City administrator Atty. Arnel Pedrosa previously stated that the city’s IATF would meet last week to discuss Alert Level 3 guidelines, but they decided not to modify any of the current public health protocols at the moment. Pedrosa said this is because they opted to follow the guidelines set by the national government instead.
“No meeting yet kasi, and enough naman ang guidelines being imposed under national level to follow,” Pedrosa said in a text message on Tuesday.
He added that there was also no scheduled meeting this week for the City IATF to discuss any possible changes to the city’s public health protocols.
Even with the city under Alert Level 2 in early January, the city government already imposed stricter public health protocols such as bringing back earlier curfew hours and the public consumption of liquor, ordering entertainment venues and establishments to close, and even requested a travel ban for returning residents and tourists from the regional IATF. These measures were all put in place to try to bring down the number of COVID-19 infections in the city. Only the travel ban was not imposed after the regional IATF turned down the request.
The city government has also adapted a 50 percent onsite work arrangement starting Thursday (January 20) to reduce infections in the workplace.
A new surge of COVID-19 is up in the city again, with cases breaching the 1,000 mark last Saturday (January 22) and still rising. As of Monday (January 24), there are 1,240 active COVID-19 cases in the city.
