Faster vaccination can mitigate ECQ impact to economy

MANILA – The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) decision to place Metro Manila under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) from Aug. 6 to 20 is expected to impact the economy and jobs in the country.

In a Viber message to journalists Friday, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua said the ECQ in the National Capital Region (NCR) is seen to cost the economy some PHP105 billion a week.

Chua said it is also expected to increase the number of poor people by up to 177,000 and 444,000 will be losing their jobs as more economic activities and establishments will be closed during the most stringent lockdown.

“These can be partly reversed if we use the three weeks to accelerate vaccination of everyone in the high risk areas. This way, the ECQ will be an investment to pave the way for a recovery once we control Delta spread,” he added.

He said providing cash aid will also help mitigate economic impacts of the lockdown.

Until August 5, NCR will be under general community quarantine (GCQ) with heightened restrictions before shifting to a two-week ECQ on Aug. 6.

This is amid the threats of the more infectious variant of coronavirus disease 2019.

In a separate statement, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez said “the ECQ may be inevitable so as to remove any possibility of an uncontrollable surge like what happened in other countries that claimed thousands of lives”.

“What is important is that even in the ECQ, we should allow the dominant portion of the production sector —agriculture, industry, (and) services— to continue to operate, so we save jobs and income,” Lopez said.