Mayors of the National Capital Region (NCR) passed a resolution on Thursday, September 9, urging the Philippines’ Interagency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases to consider relaxing COVID-19 restrictions on fully vaccinated individuals.

Under Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Resolution No. 21-19 series of 2021, local chief executives said they saw the need to ramp up economic activity while taking health and public safety concerns into consideration.

“[T]he economic activity in the NCR must be bolstered by allowing fully vaccinated individuals to engage in business and other activities which are otherwise prohibited or restricted under the Omnibus Guidelines on the Implementation of Community Quarantine in the Philippines issued by the IATF,” the resolution read.

“The Metro Manila Council (MMC) urges the IATF to consider the easing of the COVID-19 guidelines in NCR subject to the conduct of an interagency and interdisciplinary study to determine the appropriate policy based on scientific and empirical evidence,” it added. MMC is the policy-making body of the MMDA.

In passing the resolution, the mayors argued that vaccinations in the metropolis are expected to accelerate within the next month.

The MMC said that as of September 8, 5.49 million individuals or 56% of the region’s eligible population have completed two doses of the vaccine.

“By next month [or] October 8, we are expecting that we will reach 77.57% or 7,601,685 of the total eligible population in the metro to be fully vaccinated. The more people who complete their inoculation, the sooner we can achieve population protection,” said MMDA Chairman Benhur Abalos, who is MMC’s presiding officer. The national government had set 70% as its target to achieve herd immunity.

This is the first time mayors in the region collectively pushed for an easing of restrictions for fully vaccinated individuals.

Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion has been lobbying for a vaccine bubble scheme in Metro Manila cities, in which fully jabbed people would have fewer mobility restrictions, and could access high-risk establishments.

Many business establishments, mostly high-risk ones, are still shut down or operating at a very limited capacity in Metro Manila due to the extension of modified enhanced community quarantine, the Philippines’ second strictest form of lockdown.

Repeated hard lockdowns in Metro Manila since 2020 have hampered the Philippine government’s efforts to reopen the economy.

The mayors’ recommendation comes as the threat of the highly infectious Delta variant persists. As of Wednesday, active COVID-19 cases in the region stood at over 42,000. – Rappler.com

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