The national government is considering green-lighting operations of gyms and increasing to 20% the allowed indoor dine-in capacity of restaurants under Alert Level 4, said Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez on Monday, September 20.

In a Rappler Talk Newsmaker interview, Lopez said current proposals involve gyms opening at least 10% of their indoor capacity while adding health measures.

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Under Alert Level 4, the strictest level in the system currently being piloted in Metro Manila until at least September 30, gyms are still prohibited from opening.

“There’s a petition now for gyms on the basis that exercise helps build immunity,” said Lopez.

“That’s why exercise in the gym is being considered now, and because indoors there will be extra safety protocols that we will impose,” he added.

These additional protocols may include requiring gyms to provide one air purifier per gym member or customer, at any given time, said Lopez. The use of ultraviolet-C radiation to disinfect surfaces and inactivate the SARS-CoV-2 virus is also being considered.

Like in restaurants and personal care service establishments such as salons, it is possible that only vaccinated persons will be allowed to enter indoor gyms.

‘More certainty’

Around 20% of businesses in Metro Manila had to close during the last modified enhanced community quarantine, said Lopez, citing “very preliminary” results of an ongoing survey.

He gave assurances that there would be “more certainty” for business owners during the new alert level system compared to the previous community quarantine classifications because only high-risk establishments would be affected by changes in allowed capacity or closures.

But these high-risk businesses include restaurants and personal care services which Lopez said in the same interview involve 1.2 million jobs in Metro Manila alone.

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But as a sort of silver lining, Lopez noted that new businesses are still being registered despite, or possibly because of, the pandemic.

“In 2021, the 1.7 million registered businesses grew to 1.9 million. As of, I think last week, the running total was 2 million. It means many businesses are getting registered. We suspect these are businesses that thrive in a pandemic, in a lockdown, usually those related to e-commerce, e-logistics, delivery, takeout kind of model,” said Lopez.

But the Asian Development Bank pointed out in April that the new jobs being generated are low quality and not as stable – mostly self-employed people and persons in the informal sector.

While the alert level system is a way to save more businesses from lockdown-induced closures, Lopez said higher infection rates could still keep Metro Manila from being downgraded to Alert Level 3.

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Pandemic parameters like the average daily attack rate (ADAR) and two-week growth rate of cases would still be the major determinant of an area’s alert level, and ultimately the need for another region-wide lockdown.

The ADAR is the number of new cases in a city or province over a two-week period, divided by the population of the city or province.

The two-week growth rate is the percent increase or decrease in the number of new cases in the last two weeks, compared to the number of new cases in the previous two-week period. – Rappler.com