New normal by April? Not likely, says presidential adviser

Back to new normal?

MANILA, Philippines — The “new normal” is unlikely to be implemented by April owing to the low rate of booster vaccination, presidential adviser for entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion said on Monday.

During the Laging Handa public briefing, Concepcion said that while the National Capital Region and other regions have a high vaccination rate, especially for primary doses, the rest the country still has a low booster vaccination rate, making the race for the new normal a difficult task.

“Yes, kasi ‘yung challenge natin ngayon—‘yung primary doses medyo walang problem diyan dito sa NCR (National Capital Region) at ibang lugar, tumataas pero malayo pa rin ang mga booster shots,” he responded, noting that vaccine effectiveness wane after six months.

(Yes, because our challenge now—the number of our primary doses is not a problem in NCR and other areas, it is increasing but booster shot coverage is low.)

“I was all for Alert Level Zero pero dapat mataas ‘yung percentage of boosting sa mga LGUs (local government units),” he continued.

(I was all for Alert Level Zero but the percentage of boosting of LGUs must be high.)

An infectious disease expert recently said that the Philippines is ready to further relax to Alert Level Zero.

The country’s health chief Francisco Duque III said that the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases will discuss the metrics and elements of the more lenient alert level.

The Department of Health already said that among the health protocols, face masking may be the last to be go.

Based on DOH data, around 65 million individuals in the country are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as of March 20.

About 11.5 million, meanwhile, have received their third or booster dose.

EDV