Palace: Easing restrictions for fully vaccinated individuals still being debated

Malacañang on Friday said the suggestion to relax COVID-19 restrictions for fully vaccinated individuals is still being debated in the government.

“Isa pa nga po yang pinagdedebatehan…pero nagkakaisa ang IATF kailangan maibsan ang paghihirap ng lahat (It’s still being debated…But the IATF agrees that there is a need to ease the suffering of everyone),” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said at a press briefing.

Roque’s statement came after Metro Manila mayors made the suggestion to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) “subject to the conduct of an inter-agency and inter-disciplinary study to determine the appropriate policy therefore based on scientific and empirical evidence

The 17 mayors said the easing of restrictions in favor of the fully vaccinated people would not only boost employment and other economic endeavors, but would also encourage the rest of the population to have themselves vaccinated.

Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion has been pushing for the implementation of “bakuna bubbles” in Metro Manila areas with high vaccination rates.

The so-called “bakuna bubbles” are of micro-herd immunity among closed groups, such as homes and workplaces.

The solution has been proposed to enable the economy to safely reopen.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, however, had warned of legal challenges if the government pushes ahead with the policy, adding some would complain of discriminatory treatment.

The Department of Health (DOH) echoed such concern.

“The Department of Health is open for any recommendations from the Metro Manila Council. However, we still have to consider that majority of the population is still not vaccinated and hence it may lead to discrimination especially to those who don’t have access to vaccines yet. We are carefully reviewing and studying these kinds of recommendations,” it said in a statement.

“Furthermore, DOH maintains that we still cannot differentiate between those vaccinated and unvaccinated as COVID-19 vaccines are not transmission-blocking. Fully-vaccinated individuals can still get infected and transmit the virus,” the department added.

Guevarra said the proper time to push for the proposal is when the vaccines have become readily available to anyone anywhere and the majority of the people have been fully vaccinated.

However, during a Palace briefing, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III argued that that in the case of Metro Manila, around 60% of NCR‘s target population for the vaccination program had been fully vaccinated and around 80% received their first dose.

Thus, he added, the matter could be discussed again. — Joviland Rita/RSJ/DVM, GMA News