‘Make establishments open only to the fully vaccinated’

MANILA, Philippines — With the recent surge in COVID cases in Metro Manila, Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion said it is time for both the government and the private sector to consider implementing stronger measures to effectively mitigate the spread of the virus in the National Capital Region (NCR).

“We are pushing for establishments in NCR, such as malls, restaurants and others, to allow only fully vaccinated individuals so we can create safer bubbles. For example, dining areas with fully vaccinated restaurant crew serving fully vaccinated dine-in customers. This is of course upon having enough fully vaccinated residents in a certain city in Metro Manila,” Concepcion said.

At the same time, unvaccinated individuals must continue to be protected by limiting their mobility. Employees, for example, should travel only from their home to their work places, and vice-versa.

“We want to protect the unvaccinated individuals; they are the most vulnerable ones,” Concepcion explained.

He cited data from the Philippine General Hospital which found 187 individuals out of the total of 265 COVID patients admitted as of Aug. 15 were unvaccinated. The San Lazaro Hospital, meanwhile, reported that 82 percent of the total severe and critical cases were also unvaccinated individuals.

“Implementing stronger measures during the ECQ in NCR will preserve the benefits of the lockdown. It will prevent us from compromising what we have achieved so far, and what we can possibly achieve in the future. We’ll finally reap the benefits of our sacrifices,” he said.

Concepcion added that the Philippines must benchmark against similar measures in other countries. In Jakarta, malls reopened at 25 percent capacity, but only to fully vaccinated individuals. Singapore, which has vaccinated 75 percent of its population, is allowing the fully vaccinated to resume activities which require the removal of masks and even gather in groups of no more than five people.