The mandatory use of face shields, on top of wearing face masks, may have contributed to the low Covid-19 death rate in the country, according to an expert on infectious disease.

Dr. Edsel Maurice Salvana, who is also a member of the Department of Health's Technical Advisory Group for Covid-19, said the use of face shields helped the country cope with the surges and increased community transmission of the virus.

'We don't have a big healthcare capacity as other countries, and in fact, we kept deaths low and I think the face shields contributed to this because when you have two layers, the face shield and the face mask, even if the virus gets through you, you get very little in terms of the virus and it tends to get mild disease,' Salvana said in an interview with the ABS-CBN News Channel.

President Rodrigo Duterte announced on Monday that the policy on the mandatory use of face shields will stay.

Salvana said that the Philippines has one of the lowest per-million death rates in the world, much lower than that in the United States, United Kingdom, France and Spain.