Allow only fully vaccinated persons in NCR malls, restaurants – Concepcion

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 17) — Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion is pushing for malls, restaurants and other establishments in Metro Manila to only allow fully vaccinated people in their premises to create "safer bubbles" that could control the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.

"For example, dining areas with fully vaccinated restaurant crew serving fully vaccinated dine-in customers," said Concepcion in a statement on Tuesday.

He cited places such as Jakarta in Indonesia which opened malls partially to those who have completed their vaccine doses. However, Indonesia has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia. Concepcion also noted that Singapore is giving vaccinated individuals freedom to move around without requiring them to wear masks.

Concepcion added that the movement of unvaccinated individuals should also be limited.

But the official clarified that the suggested restrictions should be implemented only when there have been significant breakthroughs in the country's vaccination efforts.

"We are aware that we need to vaccinate more people before we drastically do this," he said. "That is why we are aggressively rolling-out our vaccination program in the country especially here in NCR even during the current lockdown."

Several areas in the country including Metro Manila are on lockdown due to a surge in new cases, which have climbed to over 10,000 daily in the past 11 days, exerting pressure on health facilities.

The National Task Force Against COVID-19 reported that as of Aug. 15, some 27.8 million vaccine shots have been administered to Filipinos across the nation, including over 12.5 million that were second doses. The year-end goal is 70 million.