Western Visayas (WV) will remain under COVID-19 Alert Level 3 until February 15, acting presidential spokesperson Karlo Nograles announced yesterday.

The retention of the Alert Level 3 status was recommended by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) over the weekend.

“Of course, we are monitoring regions that are under Alert Level 3 because they have a high two-week growth rate and a high average daily attack rate,” Nograles said.

Iloilo City was the first one to be placed under Alert Level 3 since January 9 after recording the first case of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of COVID-19 in the region. Bacolod City, Aklan, Antique, and Capiz were also elevated to Alert Level 3 status by January 14.

Two days later, on January 16, Negros Occidental, Iloilo province and Guimaras were also placed under Alert Level 3 due to the spike in the number of COVID-19 cases.

Under Alert Level 3, several establishments will be allowed to operate at 30 percent indoor venue capacity only for fully vaccinated individuals, and at 50 percent outdoor venue capacity provided that all employees are fully vaccinated.

Work in government offices, meanwhile, is limited to 60 percent of their onsite capacity.

Face-to-face classes in basic and higher education, contact sports, funfairs/perya, and casinos are among the activities and establishments prohibited under Alert Level 3.

Meanwhile, Western Visayas recorded 1,385 additional COVID-19 cases on Saturday, January 29, bringing the total active cases in the region to 20,583.

From an initial two confirmed cases early this month, the region now has 42 cases of Omicron variant. Thirty of these were local cases / transmissions while 12 were returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs) including the first two cases in the region detected early this month – one in Iloilo City (a 46 year-old seafarer) and the other in Bacolod City (a 38-year old cruise ship crew).

Due to its quick transmissibility, the Omicron has been called a variant of concern by the World Health Organization./WDJ