A BUSINESS leader is reminding political candidates to prioritize the vaccination rollout amid the expected busy activities leading to the national elections next year.

Filipino Cebuano Business Club Inc. chairman Rey Calooy said politicians should not forget that the Covid-19 battle isn’t over and this is the biggest battle the country must win.

“It is expected that politicians will be busy for the upcoming elections but they shouldn’t forget about this pandemic and how badly our economy needs to recover,” said Calooy.

He reminded politicians not to forget about the country’s fight against Covid-19 and its goal to inoculate majority of the country’s population.

“Our economy needs to fully recover and this can only be done by continuing the programs we have started. We just hope our politicians, even how busy they are with their respective campaigns, should never forget about getting more people to be vaccinated and reminding them to strictly follow health protocols,” he said.

Calooy said campaign sorties should be regulated to avoid the spread of Covid-19.

“We can’t anymore afford another lockdown. We all need to be responsible,” he said.

Low vaccination rate

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is worried of the country’s still low vaccination rate at 25 percent saying the pace must be a priority for the country’s economy to fully recover.

“At this moment, what we are worried about is that the Philippines’ vaccination rate is still around 25 percent—that seems to be low. In order to have a more sound and stronger demand, I think the vaccination pace must be the first priority,” said IMF Asia and Pacific department director Changyong Rhee, as quoted as saying in a report.

“Unless you have a higher number of the people vaccinated, you cannot truly maintain the containment policy because the economic impact could be very serious,” he added.

Key strategies

Early this month, the National Economic and Development Authority stressed that accelerating the vaccination roll-out, managing risks better and implementing the economic recovery program are the government’s three key strategies to reach the country’s growth targets for 2021 and 2022.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua said while prospects for the country’s economic recovery remain promising, its sustainability depends on the actions we take in dealing with the virus.

“We can get back up to four to five percent growth this year and seven to nine percent next year by doing three important things. First is accelerating the vaccination program. By November, this will be opened to the general population and will also include teenagers ages 12 years old and up. This is the most important thing we need to do as soon as the vaccine supply comes in. We have seen that our vaccine roll-out has been fast, reaching half a million per day at its peak,” he said in a statement.

The government is also looking at lowering the age restrictions for those allowed to go out to enable more family activities, allowing limited face-to-face schooling in low-risk areas, and imposing granular lockdowns in areas with higher risk to realize the second strategy.

Chua added the third strategy can be achieved by the timely use of the 2021 budget and reprioritizing it to address the gaps in education, health, and human capital development. /