DOH wary but economic advisers eager for shift to loose Alert Level 1
MANILA, Philippines — Officials of the Duterte administration have yet to reach a consensus on whether the country is ready for a nationwide shift to the "new normal" of Alert Level 1 — the loosest risk classification status in the government's alert level system — although the health department is wary of the proposal.
"Not yet at this point. We don’t want to waste our successes. We need to be careful. I’m sorry. It’s because my principle in life is that it’s better to be prudent and conservative," Health Secretary Francisco Duque said in Filipino in an interview aired over DZBB Super Radyo earlier Tuesday morning.
Duque is chairperson of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases. For his part, vaccine czar and National Task Force against COVID-19 Chief Implementer Carlito Galvez was much more open to the idea.
"We are looking into it. Based on the data presented by Secretary Duque, all areas are now at minimal risk. Based on cases, we are qualified for Alert Level 1. It is also important to meet the matrix to vaccinate 80% of senior citizens and 70% of the rest of the adult population," he said in Filipino at a media briefing Tuesday morning.
At President Rodrigo Duterte's "Talk to the People" Monday night, National Economic and Development Authority chief Karl Kendrick Chua urged the nationwide implementation of Alert Level 1 "at the soonest possible time" to offset the economic effects of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
"While we cannot prevent the risk from coming from the global perspective, we can strengthen our domestic economy to provide the people with more jobs and opportunities," he said.
Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion shared Chua's sentiment, saying that increased mobility and open economic activity will help keep businesses afloat amid the fuel crisis brought on by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
"We can’t stop the war in Europe, but we can help the country brace for a crisis...We are a consumer-led economy. We depend on mobility," he said in a statement.
"It’s now become more urgent for the Philippines to maintain its Alert Level 1 status until the end of the year. Schools and offices have a massive multiplier effect in spurring economic activity, especially with MSMEs like cafeterias, retail shops, and transport."
Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson, who is running for president, said he was supportive of the idea but urged the government to be judicious in its decision-making.
"Our economy has taken a bad beating from the lockdowns and imposed alert levels over the past two years and needs to recover - especially at this time. That said, our government authorities must also be prepared for the next pandemic or any variant that might again endanger the health situation in the country," he said.
"As I always say, there is no trade-off between health and economy. We must always be prepared to confront the problems affecting both. We cannot afford a repeat of 2020 when the government was caught unprepared."
To date, the Department of Health has recorded 3,668,268 cases of coronavirus in the Philippines, 48,437 of whom are still classified as active cases.
The department's new weekly cases bulletin, however, no longer indicates the percentage of tests that came out positive.
— Franco Luna with a report from Angelica Y. Yang
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