Mayor Benjamin Magalong said the reinstatement of the wearing of face masks in indoor settings is part of the city’s proactive stance to constantly safeguard the health of the populace.
Magalong explained that while the increase in COVID-19 cases had been gradual and in fact had even gone down recently, the city cannot take chances especially since economic activities have been in full gear and there are no plans to restrict people’s movement.
“There is no need to control movement or to limit gatherings and events.”
“There is no need to control movement or to limit gatherings and events,” the mayor stressed.
“We will just take extra precautions in protecting not only our residents but also residents of neighboring places as well as visitors from other localities by wearing masks in indoor places and by avoiding handshakes and doing fist bumps instead,” he explained.
Magalong also encouraged observing minimum public health standards like avoiding crowds, washing hands, doing regular disinfection and such other measures that were religiously practiced before.
“As always, prevention is better than cure.”
“This may sound cliche but as always, prevention is better than cure,” he stressed.
Magalong said an executive order reimplements the face mask requirement.
He noted the increase in cases may be attributed to the new variant XBB.1.16 named Arcturus, said to be more infectious than the dominant Omicron.
He said symptoms of current cases however have so far been generally mild and hospital utilization rate low.
