MANILA, Philippines — The Duterte administration economic managers are seeing the resumption of face-to-face classes by January 2022 as the government ramps up its COVID-19 vaccination program, especially on minors.
In a joint statement on Tuesday, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Chua, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, and Budget and Management officer-in-charge Tina Rose Marie Canda noted that the government’s vaccination program now includes minors aged 12 to 17.
The program may soon include children aged 5 to 11 “when the approvals are made,” they added.
“This opens the door to the resumption of face-to-face schooling beginning in January 2022,” they said.
The economic managers noted that as of Nov. 7, 29.5 million have so far completed the two doses of COVID-19 vaccines, which account for 38% of the country’s adult population.
Meanwhile, 34.7 million so far have received at least one dose.
“The numbers will improve rapidly as we continue to ramp up the vaccination program. On November 4, the Philippines exceeded 1.1 million jabs in one day,” they said.
The government is set to conduct a pilot run of limited face-to-face classes in basic education on Nov. 15.
The Department of Education has so far identified 100 public schools that will participate.