Many in IATF favor ditching face shield requirement —Palace

Malacañang said Tuesday that a number of members of the Inter-Agency Task Force are in favor of ditching the mandatory use of face shield when indoors due to the lower number of COVID-19 cases.

"I can confirm that since the number of COVID-19 cases are going down, the IATF is discussing kung ipagpapatuloy pa ang pagsusuot ng face shield," presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said.

"Marami ang nagsasabi sa IATF na itigil na ang pagsusuot ng face shield (A lot of IATF members are in favor of ditching the face shield)," he added.

Roque, however, stressed that the IATF has yet to decide if the face shield should go.

"While many are supportive of doing away with face shield, there is no decision yet. We should still wear a face shield," Roque added.

Dr. Edsel Salvaña of the UP Manila-National Institute of Health (NIH), for his part, maintained that wearing a face shield has benefits.

"COVID-19 virus can also enter through our eyes, and it protects the eyes," Salvaña said.

"The risk of getting COVID-19 is going down, but we have to make sure that everyone is vaccinated before we remove the face shield," Salvaña added.

Earlier in the year, President Rodrigo Duterte had appeared to relax the face shield mandates before reversing himself, saying he was convinced by experts.

He admitted that he made a mistake when he said wearing face shield is not needed to prevent COVID-19 transmission. He said the surge in the number of COVID-19 cases due to the more infectious Delta variant changed his mind.

"Noong dumating itong variant na Delta, natakot ako. ‘Yun, mali ko ‘yun [When the Delta variant came, it scared me. That call to ditch the face shield was a wrong call on my part]," he said.

Roque earlier said the face shield requirements would stay unless the World Health Organization deemed it unnecessary.

But in late September, Duterte said the face shield requirements have been relaxed to apply only to 3Cs — close, crowded, close-contact.

The government's face shield requirements have been a topic of much debate, with few other countries in the world having the same mandate, especially because of additional cost for common Filipinos.

Some experts have questioned the effectiveness of face shields in protecting against the COVID-19 virus, even as the government's advisory panel has insisted that it still offered a layer of protection especially with the more contagious Delta variant.—AOL, GMA News