The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) is not open to the idea of removing the alert level system in the country in favor of a standard health protocol amid the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.
In an online media briefing on Monday, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua said the proposal from Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion “merits some serious thinking” but said the alert level system must be retained because the pandemic is not over.
In offering his proposal, Concepcion said there was a need to start reviving the economy.
Meanwhile, a member of the University of the Philippines (UP) Pandemic Response Team said easing COVID-19 restrictions in Metro Manila should be delayed by a week.
“Metro Manila should ease its restrictions gradually to ensure proper implementation of protocols,” said UP professor Jomar Rabajante.
“What we’re suggesting is go slowly because we still don’t have any research how the natural immunity from Omicron can protect us,” he said.
According to OCTA Research on Monday, the National Capital Region may record fewer than 1,000 daily COVID-19 cases by mid-February, which may bring its moderate-risk classification one rung down to low-risk.
“The worst is probably over for most of the country because cases have peaked or are peaking,” OCTA’s Guido David said in an online forum
Rabajante also noted that in terms of transmission, the number of new COVID-19 cases is still in the thousands in Metro Manila, despite a decline.
“What we suggest is for protocols to be really implemented unlike in December,” he said.
Rabajante said the pandemic response team suggested that cities in Metro Manila need to have at least an average daily attack rate of less than 75 percent to ease its restrictions.
“What we suggest is to wait for 1 more week because our average daily attack rate is really high,” he said. “We can see next week if this will really decline and also if the positivity rate will decline,” he added.
Also on Monday, Interior Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said the government’s policy of barring the unvaccinated from using public transport in Metro Manila would be lifted because that rule only covers Alert Level 3 or higher.
Metro Manila is under Alert Level 2 starting Feb. 1, Tuesday.
On Jan. 30, Malacañang announced that the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) has placed the National Capital Region and seven other provinces under the less stringent Alert Level 2 starting Feb. 1.
The other areas placed under Alert Level 2 are Batanes, Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal in Luzon; Biliran and Southern Leyte in the Visayas; and Basilan in Mindanao.
Under Alert Level 2, intrazonal and interzonal movement is allowed but local government units may impose reasonable restrictions subject to evaluation of their respective regional IATF.
The economy managed to grow by 5.6 percent last year, surpassing the 5 percent to 5.5 percent target range set by the government for that year despite the prolonged impact of the pandemic that caused shifts
in alert level system in Metro Manila and other provinces to stem the further spread of the disease. The shifts affected employment and people’s mobility.
In the fourth quarter alone, the economy grew by 7.7 percent, stronger than the revised 6.9 percent a quarter ago, and a turnaround from the 8.3-percent contraction a year ago.
In 2020, the economy contracted by 9.6 percent, the worst performance since World War II.
Meanwhile, Senator Nancy Binay said she was alarmed by the abrupt lifting of the requirement for travelers to go into a quarantine facility, saying this raises public health risks.
She said the IATF should not have lifted quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated travelers until a comprehensive and localized surveillance system is in place.
With this development, she said, new spikes would be “inevitable.”
