Joint Task Force COVID Shield Commander Cesar Hawthorne Binag said Sunday the number of policemen deployed for the holiday season had been doubled to ensure citizen compliance with minimum health rules.
He told Dobol B Sa News TV that more police personnel had been assigned to patrol crowded areas.
“'Yung ating mga pulis, katulad ng binanggit ko dati, talagang doble na 'yung kanilang deployment lalo na doon sa matataong lugar,” Binag said.
Some of the additional police teams were deployed to assess people's compliance with the health protocols to avert the further transmission of COVID-19.
Quarantine classifications
The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases is set to make recommendations to President Rodrigo Duterte on the new community quarantine classifications after Christmas.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, who co-chairs the IATF, made the remark on Sunday as he denied the rumors that Metro Manila would be placed under a modified enhanced community quarantine in an alleged memo circulating on social media.
He told Dobol B Sa News TV that the supposed imposition of MECQ in Metro Manila was "fake information."
Cases near 460,000
The Philippines’ COVID-19 tally increased to 459,789 on Sunday after the Department of Health announced 1,754 new infections as 12 laboratories failed to submit reports on time.
Quezon City tallied the highest number of new cases at 163, followed by Rizal with 104, Benguet with 83, Laguna with 83 and Bulacan with 61.
The total recoveries also rose to 429,134 after 8,080 more patients recovered from the respiratory disease.
But the death toll also increased to 8,947 with 36 new fatalities.
Worldwide, the virus has infected more than 76 million people and caused nearly 1.68 million deaths since it first emerged in Wuhan, China, in late 2019, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
Emergency authorization
The government, through the Department of Health, can apply for an emergency use authorization for COVID-19 drugs and vaccines with the Food and Drug Administration, the agency said.
FDA Director General Eric Domingo told Double B sa News TV that, so far, there were no COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers that had applied for an emergency use authorization.
Early this month, President Rodrigo Duterte allowed the FDA to issue an EUA for COVID-19 drugs and vaccines.