Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion, who,
during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic led private
sector efforts to secure vaccines for the Philippines and
advocated for the gradual reopening of the economy,
believes that alert levels are no longer necessary now that Filipinos have learned
to live with Covid.
“The question we
should be asking is why
are we still implementing this alert level system
when we are no longer
under a State of Public
Health Emergency?” he
said. “We don’t have alert
level systems for when
there are a lot of dengue
cases. We warn the public
and increase awareness
so that they will be more
careful,” he said.
“At this point we
cannot afford any lockdowns or loss of confidence among our consumers. We need more
mobility and spending if
we want to see our GDP
move higher. We have
to remember that it is the
economy that is at a higher risk now,” he said Concepcion added that there is little evidence that the variant that
is currently circulating is a
cause for concern. “This is
still the Covid variant that
is mild, even the doctors
are saying that,” he said.
Concepcion added that
most experts observe that
the health care system is
not under threat. It will be
recalled that over-capacity
at hospitals was a condition that used to necessitate mobility restrictions in
order to stop the spread of
the virus.
“Filipinos already
know what to do. They are
aware of the risks but are
willing to take them because they are capable of
managing them. Filipinos,
especially the elderly and
the vulnerable, know when
situations are risky and
they mask up,” he said.
He believes this
is still the case even as the
Inter-Agency Task for the
Management of Emerging
Infectious Diseases put 56
of 82 provinces in the Philippines under Alert Level 1
until April 30.
Alert Level 1 is
the lowest of the alert level system adopted during
the height of the Covid-19
pandemic. Under the
guidelines for Alert Level
1 issued in February 2022,
public transportation and
business establishments
are allowed to operate at
100 percent capacity, and
the wearing of masks is
required. There is no more
contact tracing, although
proof of vaccination is required.
Some provinces,
however, remained under
Alert Level 2 since last
year, because of their low
vaccination rates and despite their low Covid cases and hospital utilization
rates.
“I think we have
achieved a level of immunity that is both vaccine-induced and from getting exposed to Covid. I still see
people masking up when
in enclosed spaces and
refraining from going to
work when they test positive,” he said.
Nevertheless,
Concepcion reiterated his
call for bivalent vaccines
to be made widely available to the public. “Part of
empowering our citizens is
letting them have access
to the vaccines they need.
And this begins with having the manufacturers get
the Certificates of Product
Registration for the bivalent vaccines,” he said.
