The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) expressed optimism as the vaccination of the A4 category rolls out as well as the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines in bulk.
DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez said that the economy will soon recover since the A4 category is the largest population that includes the economic frontliners and workers.
“Ngayon ay expanded na kaya yun po ay malaking tulong sa ating mga economic frontliner…mababawasan [na ang] pangamba,” he said.
He claimed that the economy’s recovery also means that jobs will start to return.
Based on the data of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the unemployment rate of the country is at 7.1%. The rate must be decreased to 4.5% until 5% to achieve the unemployment rate before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
However, the department believes that the said rate will only decline if the vaccine hesitancy also decreases. The Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) said that it plans to reduce the restrictions to those who are fully vaccinated.
“We are considering bigyan ng some sort of opening of restrictions for those people vaccinated especially ‘yung quarantine protocols natin when they return from abroad,” Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said.
Aside from this, the DTI said that it can also add the operational capacity of several industries.
“Remember meron pa tayong indoor na 30% pa lang, if ever, ito yung in-a-adjust natin dahan-dahan lang. We still follow the framework na very calibrated ang opening natin.”
Report from Naomi Tiburcio/NGS-rir
