Now is right time for further economic reopening: Lopez

MANILA – Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez said the further reopening of economic activities has been stalled since November 2020 as the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) listened to and considered the concerns of health experts in the past months.

Lopez said it is the right time to reopen more economic activities particularly in areas under general community quarantine (GCQ) like Metro Manila.

“Where we are right now actually is a point that we’ve waited already,” he said in a Laging Handa briefing on Friday.

He added that the economic team started to recommend easing the community quarantine restrictions in November last year, but the IATF also considered the fear of health experts of having a holiday surge in December.

The DTI and the National Economic and Development Authority earlier recommended to IATF and President Rodrigo Duterte to relax age restrictions by expanding 10 to 65 years old to go outside their residences starting February 1 this year.

This move was approved by the IATF but Duterte recalled the task force’s decision ordering the team to further observe the situation as the UK variant of Covid-19 is already present in the country.

“It allowed us to buy time to increase hospital rooms for Covid-19 and observe this new variant,” Lopez said in mixed English and Filipino.

He said that based on the statistics, the government was able to manage the Covid-19 cases from 4,000 cases a day in mid-2020 to below 2,000 cases per day.

This is despite the government also started the safe and gradual reopening of businesses in August last year, he added.

Lopez added that the IATF is “hopeful and confident” to maintain the gradual easing of restrictions with no surge in numbers of individuals contracting the highly infectious disease.

Reopening of cinemas

Moreover, the trade chief said areas under modified GCQ where movie houses were allowed to operate have not reported any surge in Covid-19 cases.

DTI is recommending the reopening of movie houses in GCQ areas to allow cinema workers get back to their work and bring back their source of income.

Lopez said if the local government units (LGUs) are still not comfortable of the move to reopen cinemas, he asked them to allow the reopening gradually by starting at maximum capacity of 20 to 30 percent.

“What’s important is we try the next stage, and we control and comply with the health protocol,” he said adding that this formula in reopening of economic activities is working. “Mahirap po ‘yong ‘di na tayo gagalaw (It’s difficult if we remain stagnant).”