Magandang umaga po sa inyong lahat!
First of all, we are very happy that we are finally starting to vaccinate the economic frontliners that we have po in the economic sector. We’re very thankful for this event, as we are symbolically starting the vaccination of all members of the A4 category or the economic frontliners. Very important to this is the expansion of definition. If you remember, ang previous coverage of the A4 category ay napaka-limited. But now, with the help of our leaders here na pinangungunahan nila Sec. Charlie Galvez, Sec. Duque, and Sec. Vince Dizon, in-expand po natin yung definition with the approval of COVID-19 Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) to include almost all workers—private, government, self-employed, and even those na mga kasambahay.
Talagang halos lahat na po kasama, and that’s very important because to me and to all of us, this is really the much-needed shot in the arm. Mahalaga talaga ang pagbigay suporta sa backbone of the economy, which is our workers po. This shot in the arm for the economic frontliners is also a shot in the arm for our economy. This is really what we need as we are trying to continuously reopen. Otherwise po, ang ating reopening magiging forward-backward, but hopefully, we expect to see that with many frontliners and citizens in the country getting vaccinated, we will see the active cases and death cases go down. And with that, we can confidently continue to reopen and towards the path. And that’s toward the path of recovery that’s very important. And now we are seeing signs of recovery, we will see more and better signs of recovery moving forward.
We just hope that moving forward, also as we get to vaccinate more, we start to reopen further, especially give the benefits doon sa mga nabakunahan na. We’re saying that yung mga nabakunahan na ay sana may maramdaman din silang benepisyo. What do I mean? So, yung mga bawal ngayon, sana payagan na kapag nabakunahan na ng two doses. After one month, immune na sila kaya payagan na natin yung senior citizens or yung mga 65 years old and above. Yung 65 and above na bawal ngayon ay sana po unti-unti nang mapayagan at ‘yun po ay paguusapan natin sa IATF and of course with the private sector para we can develop a policy that will give benefits doon sa mga nabakunahan na.
In terms of the domestic travel or foreign travel, kung vaccinated na, we can have a shorter quarantine sana, and that’s another policy that we are studying. Shorter policy pagdating kapag vaccinated at pagdating ang PCR test ay negative, puwede na shorter quarantine. That’s a big help also to the investors. A lot of investors are really wanting to get in but are discourage by the long quarantine that we have. We follow the best practices na ginagawa sa ibang bansa. Iyon lang po and with those adjustments in our policy with the help of our team here—the government, the IATF and the private sector—we will really go towards to path to recovery.
Maraming salamat po. ♦
Date of Release: 15 June 2021