Isko eyes normal lives for Filipinos in 6 months if elected President

Presidential aspirant Manila Mayor Isko Moreno on Tuesday said he wants Filipinos to experience normalcy amid the COVID-19 pandemic by the end of December 2022.

Isko added that he wants booster shots of COVID-19 vaccines to be administered to Filipinos by that time.

“I want you by December 31 of 2022, lumalabas ka na, kumakain na kayo kasi lahat kayo bakunado ng (you are going out, dining out because all of you are vaccinated with) booster already," he said in an interview on ANC.

“Because everybody is protected. I want you to go normal. I want your kids to go back to school. I want everyone going out there. I want us to live,” he added.

As of Sunday, a total of 25,711,980 Filipinos or 33.33% of the country’s target population are already fully vaccinated, while 30,003,713 or 38.90% are still waiting for their second dose, the National Task Force Against COVID-19 said.

The country targets to vaccinate 50 to 70 million people in the country, according to the task force.

In August, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) chief Karl Kendrick Chua said the Philippine economy's return to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels is expected late next year at the earliest.

During the House Committee on Appropriations’ deliberations on the proposed P5.024-trillion national budget for 2022, Chua said the recovery prospects for 2021 remain encouraging.

“[This] will allow us to recover to pre-pandemic levels some time at the end of 2022, if not early 2023,” he said.

In September, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. bared that the government is aiming to achieve the herd immunity target of 90% of the country's population of 110 million before Eleksyon 2022. —KG, GMA News