DILG backs booster drive in private sector–Concepcion

PUSH FOR BOOSTERS  – Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos recently met with Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion and members of the private sector Advisory Council of Experts (ACE). From left: Dr. Guido David (OCTA fellow), Jopin Romero (Go Negosyo senior adviser), Dr. Ted Herbosa (UP-PGH, formerly NTF adviser), Fr. Nic Austriaco (UST, OCTA fellow), Abalos, Concepcion, Dr. Michael Tee (UP Manila vice chancellor, OCTA fellow), Dr. Tony Leachon, Ranjit Rye (OCTA fellow). ACE also includes as members Dr. Rontgene Solante (San Lazaro Hospital, Vaccine Expert Panel), Dr. Nina Gloriani (Vaccine Expert Panel head), Dr. Maricar Limpin (Philippine College of Physicians), Dr. Benjamin Co (OCTA fellow) and economist Romy Bernardo (Global Source Partners and T3)

The campaign to raise COVID-19 booster vaccination rates in the private sector has gained the support of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), following a meeting with its proponents led by businessman Joey Concepcion and a newly assembled panel of advisers.

“Isa pa (One more)” will be the catchphrase of the DILG-backed drive, according to Concepcion, founder of the Go Negosyo movement and former presidential adviser on entrepreneurship under the Duterte administration.“Complacency is really the problem. There is no sense of urgency because people don’t see what might happen if our wall of immunity starts to weaken,” Concepcion said in a statement on Thursday, warning that a surge in reinfections would have “grave consequences’’ to economic recovery efforts.

“We need to convince people that they need boosters,” Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos said, as quoted in the statement, noting the public’s continuing hesitation to take booster shots. “The messaging is important. We need to tell them that boosters have become urgent with the start of in-person classes now only weeks away.”

Council proposals

Abalos met recently with Concepcion and members of the Advisory Council of Experts (ACE), a group of medical doctors, scientists and academics comprising the country’s foremost authorities on public health, molecular biology, disaster resilience, data insight and analysis, and economics.

ACE’s proposal outlined parameters to ease the country into normalcy and encourage economic activity without risking public health. The group was convened by Concepcion, who is also vice chair of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Council. The proposal has been met with approval from the private sector, including several industry groups and businessmen.

The council emphasizes the need for at least 70 percent of the eligible population to have their booster shots. It also proposes an easy-to-understand alert level system based on the red-yellow-green traffic light signal, similar to color-coded system used by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. The proposed system also reduces the metrics used to raise or lower alert levels to only two: health-care utilization rates and average daily attack rate, or the number of infections per hundred thousand population.

Incentive for regions

It also defines activity restrictions based on their regional applicability, and gives incentives to regions with an improving pandemic situation (by relaxing the rules on face masks, for example). The proposal also lays down a plan to address the inventory and accessibility of COVID-19 vaccines by recommending that they be granted a certificate of product registration.

Abalos said he would endorse the ACE proposals to President Marcos and set up a meeting with the Department of Health to initiate more vaccinations at the community level.

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