The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has assured that agriculture and manufacturing activities will continue despite the upcoming implementation of a two-week enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) regime in Metro Manila.
Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez told the reporters on Friday that it was important to allow such economic activities, along with services, be operational even during the strictest form of community quarantine. Doing so can help preserve employment and mitigate losses, he explained.
“We assure the public of adequate supply of goods in supermarkets and groceries because agriculture and manufacturing activities shall continue,” Lopez said.
With reported cases of Covid-19 Delta variant doubling in a day in some Metro Manila cities, Lopez said the government would continue to closely monitor related developments next week before ECQ starts on August 6.
The one-week time frame, Lopez said, will also give time for the public and business sector to make adjustments.
“Although the economy and MSMEs [micro, small and medium enterprises] cannot bear another lockdown, 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,” the DTI chief said.
Previously, Lopez stressed that MSMEs cannot afford another major lockdown as their cash flow has been depleted from the earlier implementation of ECQ. He said that the percentage of closed MSMEs might even jump to 16 percent from the current 8 percent to 10 percent if ECQ will be enforced.
Another major lockdown will be too costly for the economy, Lopez shared earlier that P30 billion worth of wages might be lost from a two-week lockdown. This, as 1.8 million workers are seen to be affected if the National Capital Region Plus bubble will be put under ECQ, he added.
“We thus encourage everyone to remain vigilant and work together with your government in preventing the further spread of Covid-19, especially the Delta variant,” Lopez said.
Allow vaccination under ECQ
The Management Association of the Philippines (MAP), in a statement issued on Friday, said that the ECQ pronouncement was “not entirely unexpected given the apparent spread of the Delta variant.”
Still, the business group expects the government to continue rolling out the much-needed vaccination programs even during ECQ.
“While this will further hurt our struggling businesses, we expect the government to mitigate the damage by increasing vaccine supply and ensuring that vaccination programs continue even under ECQ, as this is really the solution to controlling the pandemic,” MAP said. “We further urge the government to relax rules to allow all sectors to avail of vaccination, specially those given by the LGUs [local government units] which are not covered by Covax rules.”
MAP also asked that contact tracing be conducted thoroughly so the infection will be better contained. Otherwise, the business group said Covid-19 case surges are likely to continue.