The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) is inclined to allow elders aged 65 and above to leave their homes provided they are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said Monday.
The IATF is also considering a shorter quarantine period for domestic and international travelers who have been vaccinated and who have tested negative for COVID-19, Lopez said.
“That will be a big help also to the investors. A lot of investors are really wanting to get in, but they are discouraged by the long quarantine that we still have,” he said.
The proposed adjustment to the IATF policy, he noted, will help the government and the private sector on the path to recovery.
The government expects that with the vaccination of the A4 category or frontline workers, the economy will recover fast.
“This is a shot in the arm for our frontliners, and a shot in the arm for our economy. Otherwise, our reopening will continue to be two steps forward, one step back,” Lopez said.
In a separate online seminar, the OCTA Research Group said it is highly likely for the Philippines to achieve a good level of containment of the coronavirus this year.
“The ideal is to target herd immunity. But if we follow the current vaccination [rate] in the Philippines, it will take maybe three to four years before we achieve full herd immunity. But we don’t have to achieve full immunity, we believe that we can achieve population protection or containment within the year,” said UP professor and OCTA Research fellow Guido David.
For the rest of the year, the group estimated that as much as 105 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccines will arrive.
This month, some 11.5 million doses from various manufacturers will arrive and another 13.5 million will be here by July. From August to December, about 20 million will arrive monthly including the allocation from the COVAX Facility.
But David said there was still a need to address vaccine hesitancy among 33 percent of adult Filipinos.
In other developments:
* The World Health Organization (WHO) supported giving COVID-19 vaccines to people aged 12 to 17 years old, provided they are immunocompromised or have a health condition that makes them more vulnerable to the virus.
Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe, the WHO representative to the Philippines, was responding to calls to include younger people in the vaccination program.
The WHO official said that such a move is okay as long as the Philippine Food and Drug Administration approves the vaccine for emergency use on the said age bracket and in consideration of the children’s vulnerability risk.
* The Department of Health (DOH) on Monday welcomed the approval by China of the emergency use of Sinovac Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine for children between 3 and 17.
Health experts in the Philippines would study this once the pharmaceutical firm submits a revision of its emergency use authority, said DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire.