NCR mayors urge pandemic task force to ease restrictions for the fully vaccinated

MANILA, Philippines — Metro Manila mayors on Thursday urged the government's pandemic task force to ease restrictions for fully vaccinated individuals in the capital region. 

The Metro Manila Council in a resolution said the "easing of [guidelines] in favor of fully-vaccinated individuals would not only boost employment, industry, service, and other economic endeavors but would likewise encourage the rest of the population to have themselves vaccinated with the end of achieving herd immunity." 

It also noted that several local government units in Metro Manila "have reached or are nearing their vaccination targets after inoculating the residents and workers within their respective territorial jurisdictions who belong to the A1 to A4 Categories." 

The mayors went on to urge the pandemic task force to consider easing pandemic guidelines "subject to the conduct of an inter-agency and inter-disciplinary study to determine the appropriate policy...based on scientific and empirical evidence." 

The Commission on Human Rights on August 31 warned against an earlier proposal to increase the mobility of fully vaccinated people and restrict the movement of the unvaccinated between work and home as one that may lead to “undue discrimination." 

“Even if we treat greater mobility as an incentive to get vaccinated, the challenge on vaccine supply in the country remains,” CHR spokesperson Jacqueline De Guia said then. She also said that a significant proportion of the population will be restricted should the proposal push through.

Less than half of Metro Manila fully vaccinated 

The Metro Manila Development Authority in a separate statement said some 5.49 million or 40.73% of the region's population has been fully vaccinated as of September 8. MMDA noted that this was equivalent to 56% of the eligible population as only those 18 and above are currently being vaccinated. 

Meanwhile, 8.26 million or 61.28% of the population have received a first dose of the vaccine. This is 84.21% of the eligible population, MMDA said. 

Nationwide, figures as of September 5 show that 15.03 million or 13.79% of Filipinos have been fully inoculated against COVID-19. Government experts also recently raised the herd immunity target from 70% to 90%, citing the spread of coronavirus variants which have lowered the efficacy of vaccines against symptomatic infections. — Bella Perez-Rubio