Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma has made mask wearing voluntary in workplaces, with the only exceptions being health facilities such as clinics, laboratories, nursing homes, dialysis centers; medical transport vehicles such as ambulance and paramedic rescue vehicles; and public transportation by land, sea or air.
Laguesma said employers and their workers may opt to implement a policy requiring the wearing of face masks after taking into account the hazards and risks such as enclosed spaces and poor ventilation, industry requirements like food safety, and incidence of other communicable diseases such as flu or tuberculosis.
The directive also states that the elderly, immunocompromised, COVID symptomatic individuals, persons with comorbidities and pregnant women are encouraged to wear masks in workplaces.
The Department of Labor and Employment added that both employers and workers have the responsibility to ensure safe and healthy working conditions.
The easing of the face mask policy in workplaces is in accordance with an executive order issued by Malacañang on October 28.
The Department of Education has also announced that face masks in classrooms would be optional.
Although the pandemic has not yet been declared over, and the vaccination rates in the country has not yet achieved herd immunity, mask wearing is now voluntary outdoors, indoors, at the workplace and in schools. To be fair to the ones making the call, there are many legitimate reasons to do so, but at the same time, it cannot be stressed enough that COVID is still out there, still causing infections that could potentially lead to hospitalization or even death.
As our government tries to jumpstart the economy and bring back a sense of normalcy by making mask wearing voluntary on almost all fronts, it is still up to us to choose to protect ourselves by using masks. If it is not too inconvenient or costly, it still makes sense to wear masks in areas where we could still be vulnerable to infection to an airborne virus.*
