Vaccinating “ambitiously” against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) is critical in attaining sustained economic recovery, economist-lawmakers at the House of Representatives said.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman and Albay Second District Rep. Joey Salceda stressed that while easing community quarantine restrictions could help revive the ailing economy, the quick rollout of the vaccination program must be top priority to prevent a surge of infections that a reopening “will no doubt cause.”
Deputy Minority Leader and Marikina City Second District Stella Luz Quimbo, also an economist, said vaccines are “urgently needed to avert” the economic losses and “get us onto the road to recovery.”
Both lawmakers were concerned with the record-high contraction of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), which plunged to 9.5 percent in 2020 or equivalent to an economic loss of about P3.2 trillion. According to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), during the peak of quarantine restrictions, the GDP dropped by as much as 16.9 percent and the unemployment rate increased to 17.7 percent.
NEDA estimated that each week of enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) or modified ECQ in the National Capital Region and adjacent regions stripped off 0.28 percentage points from the GDP growth or equivalent to around P2.1 billion in lost wages per day.
Salceda projected that relaxing to modified GCQ or MGCQ — the most lax restriction — for the rest of the year could lead to a 1.8 percent higher GDP compared to remaining under GCQ. Quimbo said under GCQ, “we lose P700 million in income per day.”
Thus, the lawmakers stressed the critical role of vaccination.
Photo Sources: cnnphilippines.com, npr.org, wfdd.org
