By Robina Asido

Metro Manila will be placed under Alert Level 2 starting Friday, Malacanang announced on Thursday night.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) approved on Thursday the de-escalation of the National Capital Region to from Alert Level 3 to Alert Level 2.

"This shall take effect beginning tomorrow, November 5, 2021 until November 21, 2021," he said.

Roque said the task force also approved the recommendation of the sub-Technical Working Group on Data Analytics to base the alert level assignments on data that is nearest to the implementation date.

"Starting December 1, 2021, alert level assignments shall be determined at every 15th and 30th of the month. Escalations, on the other hand, may be done at any time in the middle of the implementation period as warranted while de-escalations can only be done at the end of the 2-week assessment period," he said.

"The IATF likewise directed the National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF), together with the Regional Task Forces and Regional IATFs, to provide weekly feedback on the progress and implementation on all areas identified for Alert Level System roll-out to the IATF," he added.

Roque said the IATF amended the guidelines on the implementation of Alert Levels System for COVID-19 response in pilot areas to clarify the allowed movement of persons under varying alert levels.

"Meanwhile, to measure the success of the implementation of the NTF-approved Phase IV of the National Action Plan Against COVID-19 (NAP Phase IV), the following recovery indices shall be used, namely, for Infection Management, the indices are the number of severe and critical cases per month, time gap from detection to isolation, and tests per case; for Vaccine Roll-out, the indices are the total vaccines administered per capita, new vaccine doses administered per capita, and fully vaccinated individuals; and finally, for Socio-Economic Recovery, the indices are the Purchasing Managers’ Index by IHS Markit, google mobility to retail and recreation, and number of commercial airline passengers," he said. DMS