Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said during his regular briefing on Friday, October 29, that the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases has approved the recommendations to gradually increase passenger capacity in public transportation.

From the current 50%, the government will start increasing passenger capacity for public road-based and rail transportation to 70%, and then eventually to 100%, starting November 4. Roque said the Department of Transportation (DOTr) will release more details.

The IATF resolution also said that Metro Manila will still be placed under Alert Level 3 until November 14 despite the decrease in daily COVID-19 cases. Roque explained that the task force’s decision to increase public transportation capacity was a factor.

“So inaasahan po natin that with increased mobility, posible po na tumaas ang kaso ng COVID. So sabihin na lang po natin na inuunti-unti natin ang pagbaba ng alert level system nang sa ganoon eh hindi naman biglang sumipa muli ang mga kaso ng COVID,” Roque said.

(So we expect that with increased mobility, it’s possible that the COVID-19 cases will also rise. Let’s just say that we are easing the restrictions gradually so that we can prevent the cases from shooting up again.)

The DOTr defended its proposal to increase public transportation passenger capacity to 100%, citing vaccination rates and the recent decline in COVID-19 cases. – Rappler.com