Gov’t mulls relaxing some restrictions for those vaccinated vs COVID-19

MANILA, Philippines — The government is studying possibly relaxing some restrictions for persons already vaccinated against COVID-19 in a bid to increase the vaccine uptake among Filipinos, National Task Force against COVID-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. said Monday.

“Pinag-aaralan po natin sa IATF [Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases] yung pwede pong pribilehiyo ng mga taong nabakunahan,” Galvez said in a press briefing.

(We, in the IATF, are studying possible privileges that can be given to persons already vaccinated.)

“Nakikita natin in order to motivate our seniors and people with comorbidities, kailangan talaga bigyan natin ng konting leeway,” he added.

(We saw that in order to motivate our seniors and people with comorbidities to get vaccinated, we need to give them a little leeway.)

Citing the experience of Israel, Galvez said the elderly were allowed to go out once they were already vaccinated.

A dialogue with experts from Israel has been set on June 20 to discuss what protocols could be relaxed for vaccinated individuals in the Philippines.

“Magkakaroon po kami ng dialogue, titignan natin yung lessons learned na pwede natin malaman at pwede natin maimplement,” Galvez said.

(We will have a dialogue to see what are the lessons they learned and if we can implement it here.)

Several gimmicks were already launched to encourage vaccine uptake, one of which is Las Piñas City’s raffle to win a house and lot for persons who already received the COVID-19 vaccine.

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