Metro mayors seek easing of restrictions for fully vaccinated

MANILA, Philippines — The mayors of Metro Manila yesterday urged the government to consider easing COVID-19 guidelines for fully vaccinated individuals in the National Capital Region (NCR.)

In Resolution 21-19, the Metro Manila Council (MMC) composed of all 17 mayors pushed for the easing of prohibitions as the government continues to battle the pandemic.

“While the local government units in the NCR are mindful of health and public safety concerns, which are occasioned by the pandemic, they are equally aware that economic activity in the NCR must be bolstered by allowing fully vaccinated individuals to engage in businesses and other activities otherwise prohibited or restricted,” the resolution read.

“The easing of the guidelines in favor of fully vaccinated individuals would not only boost employment, industry, services and other economic endeavors but would likewise encourage the rest of the population to have themselves vaccinated with the end of achieving herd immunity at the soonest possible time,” it added.

All 17 mayors unanimously approved the resolution.

Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Benhur Abalos supported the move, saying in a statement that this would boost the economy, specially the industries and services hit by the pandemic.

“With the NCR being considered right now to be the epicenter of this pandemic and the region with the most number of vaccinated individuals, we are confident that we can find the right balance between safeguarding the public’s health and reviving the economy,” he said.

According to Abalos, the region already fully vaccinated 5,492,344 individuals as of Sept. 8. At least 8,262,558 have also received their first vaccine shot.

He is confident that, by Oct. 8, 77.57 percent or 7,601,685 of the total eligible population in Metro Manila shall have been fully vaccinated.

“And since the AstraZeneca vaccine has an interval of 12 weeks at most between the first dose and the second dose, we expect 87 percent of the eligible population in NCR to be vaccinated in three months’ time or not later than Dec. 8,” Abalos bared.

Presidential adviser for entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion also supported MMC’s move, saying this is “in line with the bakuna bubble model that Go Negosyo has been pushing for” to provide mobility to fully vaccinated individuals and help revive the economy.”

“Whether we like it or not, we should learn how to co-exist with COVID-19 as the virus could persist for a long time. Bakuna bubble is a win-win solution where we can co-exist with the virus while helping the economy recover from the effects of the pandemic,” Concepcion said.

The bakuna bubble is being proposed for Metro Manila LGUs that have already achieved high vaccination rates. In this setup, establishments such as restaurants, salons and gyms would allow fully vaccinated individuals to avail themselves of services.

For the unvaccinated to be allowed access in the establishments, they would need to show a negative COVID test result.

Speed up vaccine rollout

Meanwhile, vaccination experts stressed yesterday the need to speed up the vaccination rollout to prevent mutations of the coronavirus.

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“The longer we wait to get vaccinated, we are giving more time for the virus to mutate,” said Dr. Gianne Eduard Ulanday, a virologist of the University of the Philippines and one of the panelists during the Expert’s Class Episode 4: Vaccines and Vaccination webinar organized by the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

Ulanday urged people not to choose vaccine brands, stressing that time is of the essence.

She said there is no vaccine brand that is 100 percent effective, not only with COVID, but with other diseases as well.

Another vaccine expert, Dr. John Mark Velasco, said the best brand is still the one that is immediately available.

“Rather than comparing between brands, on whether this is the best one, or this is a better one, this provides higher protection, longer protection, maybe we should focus on just getting what is available right now, to be protected, because all of these vaccine brands, they have full protection against severe infection, and that’s what we’re trying to prevent – severe infection,” said Velasco, a physician-scientist from the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology.

Currently, there are around 93 vaccines being tested in clinical trials in humans and 30 candidate COVID-19 vaccines have reached the final stages of Phase 3 clinical testing.

?On top of that, at least 77 preclinical vaccines are under trials in animals. All these vaccines are designed to teach the body’s immune system to safely recognize and block the virus that causes COVID-19.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) director-general Eric Domingo said they are not seeing a “waning” in the efficacy of China’s Sinovac vaccine, noting that “there is no evidence to prove (its) declining efficacy six months after getting the second dose.”

“As of this time, about five months after the second dose, it seems it is not yet convincing to say that there is that waning protection,” Domingo said in a virtual briefing yesterday.

He noted that out of seven million individuals fully vaccinated with Sinovac, “the number is still very low in terms of breakthrough infection and mortalities.”

Domingo, who himself was vaccinated with Sinovac during the first day of the vaccination rollout in the country last March, said there is no pattern showing wearing off of immunity even though Sinovac has been used the most and longest in the country.

The country is expected to receive 502,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines today.

Philippine Airlines is also preparing to fly in 8.5 million doses of Sinovac vaccines from Beijing, China—all procured by the Philippine government—in four separate flights and dates starting today.

PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna said the flag carrier would fly 1.5 million doses of Sinovac vaccines today, another two million on Sept. 13, two million more on Sept. 17 and three million on Sept. 19. – Louella Desiderio, Rainier Allan Ronda, Mayen Jaymalin, Richmond Mercurio, Rudy Santos