Business adviser urges gov’t to shift to ‘recovery mode’ with Alert Level 1 by March
PRESIDENTIAL Adviser for Entrepreneurship Jose Ma. A. Concepcion III called on the government to place the country under pandemic Alert Level 1, the least restrictive under a five-level system, by March to sustain economic recovery.
Mr. Concepcion said in a statement on Tuesday that Alert Level 1 should be implemented starting next month as the country is seen to record lower coronavirus cases, citing an estimate by the OCTA Research Group that daily infections will drop to 1,000 to 2,000 by end-February.
“We need to de-escalate our countrymen from crisis mode to recovery mode,” Mr. Concepcion said.
“This is important if Filipinos (have) to come out and help rebuild our country by engaging in economic activity like going to shops, dining out, traveling or going back to work.”
Mr. Concepcion said a shift to Alert Level 1 will have a big effect on the country’s economic recovery, adding that areas with high vaccination rate can implement a no alert level status while maintaining minimum health protocols such as wearing of face mask.
“I think that as long as there are no variants of concern, and we have already achieved a high vaccination rate and hospital utilization rate is low, we can already start to consider lifting alert levels,” he said.
Mr. Concepcion also suggested that the government should firm up the timing for administering booster shots, noting that immunity will eventually wane and thousands of vaccines are approaching expiry date.
During an interview in ABS-CBN News Channel on Tuesday, Mr. Concepcion also recommended that the alert level system should eventually be set aside and just reimplemented if there is another virus outbreak.
“Six months or eight months or a year from now, we don’t know if there’ll be another virus, maybe more contagious. But the alert level system is still there. So, we can bring it back once we see the threat,” he said. “My only suggestion is maybe we can trim it down instead of Alert Level 1 to 5, maybe we can trim it down to Alert Level 1 to 3.” — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave
