With the economy fully open, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez believes that Alert Level 1 will probably stay until the end of the term of President Rodrigo Duterte in June.

''For us, we may not need to go to down to Alert Level 1 because the economy is open,'' Lopez told dzBB on Sunday.

''Economic activity is generally returning,'' added Lopez. ''We just need to bring it back to pre-pandemic level.''

Alert Level 0 means that restrictions on movement of people will be gone and wearing of face masks may become optional.

He said people are trooping to malls, commercial centers because the alert level is low. ''Pre-pandemic volume seen on weekends because a lot of people are commercial centers,'' Lopez explained.

Lopez said the government expects economic activity will return to pre-pandemic level in 2019 this year. DMS