Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion welcomed President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s announcement that there will be no more lockdowns imposed in the country. “This is what the private sector and MSMEs need as it will allow for full recovery from the pandemic,” he said. President Marcos made the pronouncement during his first State of the Nation Address, citing the need for the economy to stay open and recover after two years of restricted economic activity.
 
The MSMED Council vice-chair also expressed his support of the President’s announcement of a more aggressive booster vaccination program. “Go Negosyo, along with our private sector Advisory Council of Experts are working on the “ISA PA” campaign to encourage those who are due for boosters to get ONE MORE SHOT for their loved ones, for themselves, for the country,” said Concepcion.
 
Concepcion, however, remains hopeful that the ‘traffic light’ alert level system being proposed by ACE and the private sector, will eventually be considered by the President and adopted by the country. “This will help simplify the restrictions and allow us to live with the virus,” said Conception.
 
“Our proposed system is based on two measures only: ADAR (average daily attack rate) and HCUR (healthcare utilization rate). Both are leading indicators used all over the world,” he said. The system also ensures transparency in decision-making and incentivizes good pandemic status by local governments as the proposed system is planned to be implemented on the regional level.  
 
He added that with omicron as the dominant variant in the country today, the adoption of the traffic light system is in sync with the President’s vow to not put the country under lockdown again. “The experts at ACE say that it is highly unlikely for a lockdown to be called if we adopt this system as ADAR will have to be greater than 18 and HCUR at higher levels of 50 percent,” said Concepcion.
 
Concepcion also thanked the President for putting pandemic response on his agenda, noting that the Chief Executive is bent on putting structural reforms as priority measures of his administration, specifically the creation of the Philippine Center for Disease Prevention and Control, which will be under the Department of Health, and the Virology institute of the Philippines, which will be under the Department of Science and Technology.