The Department of Health on Friday placed all hospitals in the country under white alert status until next week to attend to emergency and non-emergency cases during the New Year's festivities.

Under a code white alert, all health facilities, whether public or private, must prepare for any eventuality that could occur from 20 December 2023 to 4 January 2024.

Hospitals are expected to activate their operations centers or OpCen, which will continuously report to and coordinate with the regional and central DoH OpCens.

There should also be more medicines and supplies in the emergency and operating rooms, especially for trauma cases. Other essentials, such as X-ray plates, laboratory requirements, etc., should also be made available without requiring out-of-pocket fees from victims.

More funds and staff will be ready for use and deployment, with greater logistics coordination and security. The triage system will also be enhanced in anticipation of the number of patients.

Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa said the alert was raised upon the orders of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

"But the best cure is still to prevent such incidents, especially trauma, from even happening," Herbosa said, reiteration his call to the public to avoid using firecrackers and not to drink alcohol, especially when driving.

"Let us all help each other and welcome the New Year happy and healthy together," he added.

Generally fair weather

Meanwhile, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration said "generally fair" weather will prevail during this year's final weekend, and Filipinos can expect to welcome the New Year under clear skies.

In a television interview on Friday, PAGASA weather specialist Rhea Torres said they did not monitor any weather disturbance throughout the weekend.

"Since we are currently not monitoring any low-pressure area or tropical cyclone within and outside the Philippine area of responsibility, we're expecting this coming New Year to be generally fair over large portions of the country," Torres said.

Torres, however, said partly cloudy skies with isolated rains or thunderstorms may be experienced over Batanes, Babuyan Islands, Mimaropa, Bicol Region, and other areas in the Visayas and Mindanao.

She said cold air and a slight possibility of rain may still be experienced in some parts of the country due to the northeast monsoon or "Amihan" and the easterlies — the winds blowing from the east.

In its weekly weather outlook, PAGASA said Southern Luzon and eastern Visayas will experience cloudy skies with scattered rains and thunderstorms due to the easterlies. At the same time, the "Amihan" will affect northern and Central Luzon from 29 to 31 December.

PAGASA said the eastern section of northern and Central Luzon will experience mostly cloudy skies with scattered rains and thunderstorms due to the shear line from 1 to 2 January 2024.

Mostly cloudy skies with isolated light rains will prevail over the rest of northern and Central Luzon, Calabarzon, and Metro Manila in the first two days of the New Year.

PAGASA advised sea travelers to exercise extra caution due to the surge of the northeast monsoon, which may result in rough to very rough sea conditions, particularly in the seaboards of northern Luzon, the eastern seaboard of Central and Southern Luzon, and eastern Visayas.

From 3 to 5 January, the eastern section of northern and central Luzon will experience mostly cloudy skies with scattered rains and thunderstorms due to the shear line, while the Amihan will bring cloudy skies with isolated rains over the northern and central Luzon, Calabarzon and Metro Manila.

Further, the eastern section of Southern Luzon, eastern Visayas, and the Caraga region will experience mostly cloudy weather with scattered rains and thunderstorms due to the easterlies. At the same time, the rest of the country will have partly cloudy skies with isolated rains or thunderstorms.