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President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday said that wearing face shields is a small inconvenience needed to be endured, declaring that it offers some defense against COVID-19.

“It will provide an added premium of prevention. It might not really be a big percentage but even if it’s just a five percent of you being more protected because you have the shield, eh mas maganda na ‘yan,” Duterte said in a talk to the people.

“Ano ba naman ‘yang inconvenience to the fact of getting sick and probably dying? Lalo na itong COVID [Delta] ngayon, it has affected the children also [What is a little inconvenience compared with being sick or dying to COVID-19, especially with the more transmissible Delta variant which has also affected children],” Duterte added.

The government has mandated the use of face shields when outside one’s residence.

Manila Mayor Isko Moreno, who had earlier urged the government to drop the face shield requirement, last week called out the Duterte administration for purchasing face shields instead of medicines for COVID-19 patients, such as remdesivir and tocilizumab.

Nine days after Moreno’s remark, vaccine czar and National Task Force Against COVID-19 Carlito Galvez, Jr. said in the same taped address on Thursday that the country is incapable of replenishing supply of tocilizumab, a medicine administered on COVID-19 patients, due to lack of global supply.