President Rodrigo Duterte may ease quarantine restrictions once at least two million Filipinos have been vaccinated against COVID-19, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said Thursday.
Under the general community quarantine, a mass gathering is limited to 10 people in one venue or in one closed room.
Meanwhile, 50% of a venue’s capacity could be filled up under the modified general community quarantine.
“He wants to see a more massive vaccine rollout para tumaas ang kumpiyansa niya na mag-open ng limited face-to-face classes,” Nograles added.
Last month, the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) has recommended that the entire country could be placed under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) to rebuild the economy caused by coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
According to acting NEDA chief Karl Chua, more than P1 trillion was lost to the country’s economy by 2020 due to lockdown protocols implemented to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Duterte may ease quarantine once PH administers 2M COVID-19 vaccines – Nograles
He said this is equivalent to P2.8 billion per day.
In addition, he said, the number of recorded cases can be controlled and there are mechanisms that are supposed to continue to control it.
NEDA also wants to gradually ease restrictions on public transport.
The country’s COVID-19 vaccination program started on Monday after 600,000 doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac arrived on Sunday.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. announced Wednesday that the vaccination for the general public may start between late April or early May.
In an interview with ANC, Galvez said poor families, senior citizens, and vulnerable groups may also receive the vaccine around the same period.
Galvez said that the ongoing inoculation of health workers is expected to be finished by the end of the month.
However, if the vaccine supplies would not arrive on time, Galvez said the vaccination of the priority list would be completed by April.