NEDA backs move to relaxed quarantine setting by March
SOCIOECONOMIC Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua wants a shift to the least strict form of quarantine by March, which he said would add P11.2 billion to the economy each week.
National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) estimates indicate that a move from Alert Level 2 to Alert Level 1 would add 191,000 jobs per week.
“If we continue to work together and see Alert Level 1, hopefully by the next month, then we would have added P11.2 billion in gross value added per week in the NCR Plus area,” Mr. Chua said in a Management Association of the Philippines economic briefing on Thursday.
Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal were placed under Alert Level 3 last month due to an Omicron-driven surge in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases after the holidays. Economic managers said this resulted in P3 billion in productivity losses each week.
In response to the current Alert Level 2 quarantine, Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Jose Ma. A. Concepcion has also been asking the government to move to the least strict quarantine setting by March to restore economic activity.
The COVID-19 daily tally hit 4,575 on Thursday, bringing the active case count to 93,307.
Along with restoring economic activity, Mr. Chua has been supporting a return to face-to-face classes.
“Our thinking in NEDA is we will not get it right at the start, but it is crucial to pilot immediately (in) more schools so that we learn from the pilot,” he said. “The more we pilot, the more we will learn, the more we can get it right.”
The unavailability of physical classes could worsen the quality of education and cost the country P11 trillion in lost wages over the next four decades, NEDA has estimated.
“Learning was compromised by the prolonged school closure,” Brain Trust, Inc. Chair Cielito F. Habito said at the same event.
“Children of poor families in remote areas actually had no access… and therefore were left out of this remote learning exercise, and so the effect of these lost years will be felt years from now in terms of reduced worker productivity.” — Jenina P. Ibañez
