The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said limiting dine-in and personal care services to only the vaccinated individuals during lockdowns will help recover the P1.5 billion lost weekly revenues of the food retail industry and will save as much as 1.2 million jobs in the two sectors in the National Capital Region (NCR) alone.
“I am pushing for allowing vaccinated (individuals to avail of, and workers to render, services) in restricted sectors like dine- in and personal care during lockdowns where these will be allowed to operate at just 20 percent of their capacities. It is safer for vaccinated individuals and not for unvaccinated. We believe in the vaccine, so we should believe in the vaccinated,” he said, adding this will serve as an incentive for Filipinos to get the jab.
“With this, we can help bring back jobs and open a bit these sectors,” Lopez said.
He said for other sectors that are not restricted, both the vaccinated and unvaccinated should be allowed in public transportation and malls “otherwise it , looks discriminatory.”
When lockdowns are lifted, Lopez said everyone regardless if they are vaccinated or not, should be allowed to move around and avail of the services of these sectors subject to operating capacity.
“Once approved, this will be part of new protocols and the IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases) guidelines,” Lopez said
