Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna pressed residents of the capital city to get vaccinated or booster shots against Covid-19 following the national government's easing of mandatory mask wearing outdoors.

A doctor, Lacuna said the best protection against the virus would be to get inoculated against it at a time when people seemed to have developed an aversion to getting boosted.

She stressed that mandatory masking indoors should stay and be strictly enforced by the authorities.

Even outdoors, people should wear masks when in high-risk areas like at shopping booths with crowds of bargain-hunters for Christmas gifts. "If you have worries, wear masks, as wearing them is voluntary outdoors," she said.

The mayor said shoppers at Divisoria and Quiapo, as well as in crowded areas in the University Belt in and around Recto Avenue, should wear masks to protect themselves.

According to Lacuna, the number of fully vaccinated people in Manila has reached 1,637,191 with 3.5 million vaccine doses administered so far.

Since the pandemic began, Lacuna had been advocating "vaccination as the solution," saying it is still the best defense against the coronavirus and if one still gets infected, it would just be mild or asymptomatic.