Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Alert Level 1 could remain in the areas presently covered by this until the end of President Rodrigo Duterte's term on June 30.

Duque told dzBB Wednesday that the coronavirus disease is ''notorious for mutating'' into other strains.

''I think Alert Level 1 will be extended until it (Duterte's term) ends. We cannot say that this is finished or the next strain will be mild,'' said Duque.

The Inter-Agency Task Force on Tuesday put Metro Manila and 47 areas under Alert Level One. Duque said this puts the total areas under Alert Level One to 64.

Duque said there are around 51 areas in the country under Alert Level 2. ''To bring these down to Alert Level One will take lots of work,'' he said.

Talk about some areas, like Metro Manila, going under Alert Level Zero is far off, Duque said. He said the criteria for being in this alert level are being formed.

Duque admitted that there has been some complacency as people who have been vaccinated twice procrastinate before getting a booster dose.

''We cannot be complacement and we cannot ease restrictions quickly,'' said Duque, pointing out that some countries in Europe experienced a spike in COVID-19 cases when face masks were removed.

Seniors are vulnerable to this, he said as he pointed out that one of the four criteria to be under Alert Level is for at least 70 percent of the senior population to be fully vaccinated.

So far, the Department of Health has detected BA.1 and BA.2, which are sublineages of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 disease. DMS