DEPARTMENT of Health (DOH) officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said on Wednesday, August 31, 2022, that the Cebu City Government did not consult them in relation to the order of Mayor Michael Rama making the wearing of face masks in open areas optional.“We were never consulted on this matter regarding this removal of face mask outdoors and this executive order they are going to issue,” Vergeire said in a press conference.She said the matter is under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), which should be able to implement policies among all local government units across the country without exception.Vergeire maintained, though, that no area within the country should implement a measure in contrast to the national policy especially amid the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.“Because we know have porous borders, we know that people all over the country travels to and from these different areas of the country and we know that Covid-19 crosses borders, so if we are preventing infections in most of the areas in the country and one area in the country will not have that kind of safeguard, then therefore the possibility or the risk of infections will be higher in these areas because the safeguards are not there,” she said.“Therefore people who are going there or people from that place going out might have that higher risk of infecting other people also from the other areas,” she added.The health officials reiterated the need for a one nation approach to ensure the protection of the population from the virus which claimed thousands of lives across the world.Vergeire said the National Government is continuously studying measures, including the possible lifting of mandatory wearing of face masks in public areas, noting that this will happen once the Covid-19 situation in the country gets better.Covid-19 cases in the Philippines have been increasing recently and among the factors seen were the increase in the mobility of people following the easing of restrictions, the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron subvariant, and the waning protection from the vaccines.Vergeire reiterated the urgent need for the public to get Covid-19 jabs, including booster doses in a bid to increase the country’s wall of immunity against the virus. (SunStar Philippines)