MALL and building owners have backed a proposal for “safe spaces” in their establishments, businessman Jose Ma. “Joey” A. Concepcion III said about his bid to create so-called herd immunity in some areas.
Mr. Concepcion, presidential adviser for entrepreneurship, said in a statement that in a meeting, the country’s major mall and building owners supported achieving around 80% fully vaccinated people in their establishments to bring back full operational capacity from 50% at present.
“Safe spaces” is a means to create herd immunity in areas where the private sector has control such as office buildings, factories and malls.
“We would like to propose to the government to allow us to implement safe spaces with an increased workforce capacity as soon as we reach 80% vaccination or herd immunity in our respective buildings,” said Mr. Concepcion, founder of entrepreneurship advocacy Go Negosyo.
He added that creating safe spaces would allow businesses to stop virus transmission, the spread of new variants, and even indirectly provide immunity to the unvaccinated.
“We want to send a clear message that workspaces are ‘safe spaces.’ We are also currently working on a roadmap that will set the milestones for our economic recovery, that’s why we are discussing ideas such as safe spaces, among other ideas, as we would integrate this into our roadmap which will give the picture of how our economy could move as we achieve population protection then herd immunity,” Mr. Concepcion said.
The statement said the meeting was participated in by Filinvest Land, Inc. President and CEO Lourdes Josephine Gotianun Yap; SM Prime Holdings, Inc. Chairman of the Executive Committee Hans T. Sy; Ayala Property Management Corp. Chairman Bernard Vincent O. Dy; Alliance Global Group, Inc. CEO Kevin Andrew L. Tan; and Robinsons Land Corp. President and CEO Frederick D. Go.
“We are still under the consultation stage and safe spaces is just one of the ideas being floated around as we expect to achieve population protection by September/October in NCR Plus,” Mr. Concepcion said, referring to the National Capital Region and nearby provinces.
