The Presidential Adviser on Entrepreneurship Supports “Alert Level 0”

With the possibility of an “Alert Level Zero” , Presidential Adviser on Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion put forward his suggestions on what would constitute mandates for the private sector under the new proposed category of the Philippines’s alert level system.

“I support the move,” said the Go Negosyo founder, adding that he believes that masks need not be necessary in outdoor situations, except when physical distance is not possible, such as when people are gathered during political rallies.

He also suggested rolling it out first in Alert Level 1 areas, and doing so by April. “So far, we have not seen any superspreader events that can be directly attributed to the rallies,” he said. The Go Negosyo founder also believes the Alert Level Zero status will incentivize local governments to step up their own vaccination efforts in order for them to qualify under the less stringent measures.

As for indoor mask mandates, Concepcion said business owners must be given the freedom to decide how best to keep themselves and their customers from being infected. “I think it is high time we trusted the business owners on what they need to do to protect themselves and their customers,” he said.

The Philippine government’s pandemic task force had earlier announced that it will discuss the parameters of an Alert Level Zero, this as the number of Covid-19 cases in the country continue to drop and key indicators, such as healthcare utilization rate, or HCUR, remain in the low-risk classification.

In a public briefing, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said that even as establishments have expanded their capacity to 100 percent under Alert Level 1, the country’s cases continued to decrease.

“So far, so good,” he said. “We have been recording below 1,000 cases daily for six days and hopefully we can lower it to 500 daily or even less. With such, we might be able to de-escalate to Alert Level zero,,” he said.

Early this year, Concepcion proposed a similar scheme in which alert levels will only be put in place as needed in each area. The system would be similar to a typhoon alert level where it would only be called when a threat is detected.

OCTA Research had recently released a ranking of Covid-19 numbers in East Asia. As of March 9, the Philippines is in the “very low” risk classification of ADAR (average daily attack rate, or infections per 100,000 population) at 0.68, with a seven-day average of only 766 infections.

“With Alert Level Zero, we can basically allow the business establishments to draw up the health protocols that they believe should be applied to them. They should have some leeway. They’ve had two years of practice and are by now quite aware of what needs to be done,” he said.

“What we can do is all personnel who interact directly with the customers must be required to wear masks; customers can choose whether they want to wear a mask,” he added.

Concepcion also raised the possibility of expediting the return of face-to-face classes in areas under an Alert Level Zero classification. “Parents can also benefit from the resumption of face-to-face classes as the children can now be supervised by professional teachers and the parents can go back to work,” he said. “We don’t need to subject the parents to additional stress by making them choose between their children and the opportunity to earn a living,” he said, noting that many offices are slowly asking their employees to return to on-site work.

teteventstribune | March 12, 2022 at 5:30 pm | Tags: Alert Level 0, Go Negosyo, Joey Concepcion | Categories: News | URL: https://wp.me/p6ZZmM-1Zz

Comment    See all comments    Like

Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from TET Events Tribune.

Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions.

Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser:

https://teteventstribune.wordpress.com/2022/03/12/the-presidential-adviser-on-entrepreneurship-supports-alert-level-0/

 the possibility of expediting the return of face-to-face classes in areas under an Alert Level Zero classification. “Parents can also benefit from the resumption of face-to-face classes as the children can now be supervised by professional teachers and the parents can go back to work,” he said. “We don’t need to subject the parents to additional stress by making them choose between their children and the opportunity to earn a living,” he said, noting that many offices are slowly asking their employees to return to on-site work.