More than 45,000 establishments have safety seals which allow them to operate with an additional 10 percent capacity.

"It is a big help for the businessmen if they have a safety seal from the government because it will allow them to have an additional operational capacity," Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said during the ''Laging Handa'' public briefing on Monday.

Malaya said so far a total of 86,159 establishments nationwide have applied for the safety seal, of which 45,649 were approved by different government agencies and more than 9000 others were denied.

"All in all we have a total of 45,649 approved or issued safety seals all over the country, of which 12,652 were issued in NCR, 4,152 are issued by the Department of Trade and Industry; 1,085 from the Department of Tourism; 541 from Department of Labor and Employment, 12,154 Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Local Government Units 27,717," he said.

Malaya said the number of areas under granular lockdown also went down to 139 from 303 early this month.

"On Oct. 1 we had 303 areas in Metro Manila under granular lockdown. On Oct. 15, it went down to 139, there is a significant decrease and our data is consistent in case of transmission and increase in vaccination in NCR," he added.

"In 139 lockdown areas most of which are in Pasay with 33 areas, Manila with 34, QC has 30, Pateros with 27, and 10 in Las Pinas and the rest for a total of 139 areas," he added.

Malaya said a total of 617 families were affected in the 139 areas under granular lockdown. Robina Asido/DMS