Amid the threat of the COVID-19 Omicron variant, the World Health Organization (WHO) said there is no need yet for mandatory use of face shields.

During the Laging Handa public briefing on Tuesday, WHO Representative to the Philippines Rabindra Abeyasinghe said there is no need for mandatory use of face shield as long as the minimum public health standards were followed.

"WHO has right along said that this is a virus that is not airborne, right? It’s close contact transmission and that is why we emphasize that what is important is the physical distancing and the face masking and the hand hygiene," he said.

"If we can ensure that those minimum requirements, that those minimum public health measures are complied with, if we can ensure that people don’t congregate in closed settings, the requirement for face shields probably at this point of time is not mandatory because as I said, we are still looking at understanding the transmission dynamics of the Omicron variant," he added.

Abeyasinghe said it will be premature to reintroduce the use of face shields at the moment as there is a significant public discontent on the mandatory use of face shields.

"I think it will be premature now to go there and say we need to reintroduce face shields because we also know that there is significant public discontent on the mandatory use of face shields," he said.

"So it’s better to get public compliance with the measures that are there and a data risk-based approach to reanalyze whether we need to go into the use of face shields or not," he added. Robina Asido/DMS