The Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) also placed three provinces near Metro Manila under Alert Level 3 starting Jan. 5 to Jan. 15 , a Palace official said on Tuesday.

Acting Presidential Spokesperson Karlo Nograles said the province of Bulacan, Cavite and Rizal will be escalated to Alert Level 3 "due to a sharp increase of COVID-19 cases".

"The Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) approved yesterday, January 3, 2022, the recommendation of its sub-Technical Working Group on Data Analytics to escalate Bulacan, Cavite, and Rizal to Alert Level 3," he said.

Due to the increasing number of COVID-19 cases and the recorded cases of Omicron variant the NCR was first placed under Alert Level 3 from January 3 to 15.

Department of Health (DOH) data as of January 3 shows that after NCR with 2,848 new cases, Cavite is second with 270, Bulacan 185 and Rizal 149. Robina Asido/DMS