President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday expanded the implementation of Alert Level System (ALS) for COVID-19 response nationwide, an order the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) said will begin its second phase on Friday.

Duterte, in his Executive Order (EO) No. 151, said the areas already under the ALS system are classified as the first phase of the nationwide implementation.

These areas include the National Capital Region, Region III, IV-A, VII, X, and XI.

The EO has been classified into three other phases in the rest of the Philippines:

• Phase 2: Region I, VIII, and XII
• Phase 3: Region II, V, IX
• Phase 4: Cordillera Administrative Region, Region IV-B, Region XIII, and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The third phase will begin on November 17, while the fourth phase will start on November 22, according to IATF and presidential spokesperson Harry Roque.

The five-tier Alert Level System was implemented in NCR in September. These are the classifications for each level as per the guidelines of the IATF:

• Alert Level 1 - refers to areas where in case of transmission is low and decreasing, total bed utilization rate, and intensive care unit utilization rate is low.
• Alert Level 2 - refers to areas wherein case transmission is low and decreasing, healthcare utilization is low, or case counts are low but increasing, or case counts are low and decreasing but total bed utilization rate and intensive care unit utilization rate is increasing.
• Alert Level 3 - refers to areas wherein case counts are high and/or increasing, with total bed utilization rate and intensive care unit utilization rate at increasing utilization.
• Alert Level 4 - refers to areas wherein case counts are high and/or increasing, with total bed utilization rate and intensive care unit utilization rate at high utilization.
• Alert Level 5 - refers to areas wherein case counts are alarming, with total bed utilization rate and intensive care unit utilization rate at critical utilization.

In order to correctly classify a region under a certain Alert Level, the IATF ordered the National Task Force Against COVID-19, the National Vaccine Operations Centers, as well as the Department of Information and Technology to facilitate the provision of relevant vaccination data, including the target population and vaccination coverage per priority group.