Government considers reviewing age restrictions for late January or February: official

MANILA, Philippines – The government may consider re-evaluating age restrictions for those who are allowed to leave their homes amid the Covid-19 pandemic in late January or February, the country’s deputy director of implementation said Wednesday against COVID-19, Vince Dizon.

During the Kapihan sa Manila Bay media forum, Dizon, also the country’s test czar, said that health authorities are still assessing the effects of holiday activities in December on the Covid-19 cases that were recorded in January this year.

“We are continually discussing restrictions and I think that when our medical advisers get to a point where they feel comfortable that it will not cause tremendous risk to the general population, I think those age restrictions will slowly ease as well.” he said.

“But right now this January, we are still waiting for the effects of Christmas and New Years and major events like Traslation, etc. But I think that by the end of January or February it will be reassessed and we will see if we can alleviate a little more depending on what happens with our cases, “he said.

(But for January, we are still monitoring the effects of Christmas and New Years and other major events like Traslation. But I think that by the end of January February, the age restriction will be reassessed and we will see if we can ease the age restriction depending on what happens with our cases).

Dizon explained that the relaxation of age restrictions will be based on “everyone’s opinion” and on the recommendation of health experts from the Inter-institutional Working Group for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).

He reiterated that the government also considers the effects of prolonged community quarantine restrictions on the economy when making decisions for Covid-19 protocols.

“Again, so far it is really a balance between health and economy, but as you have seen since the third quarter of last year, tuloy-tuloy is slowly but surely making progress in pagbubukas. In fact, because nga po lalo na noong vacations, you kill natin cases but we have not yet returned to a stricter level of quarantine, even if we are seeing an increase in the number, “he said.

(Again, so far, it’s really a balance between health and economy, but as you’ve seen in the third quarter of last year, we continually reopen the economy slowly but surely. In fact, that’s why, especially during the holidays, the number of cases increased, but we have not yet returned to a stricter level of quarantine, even if we are seeing an increase in the number).

During the Laging Handa briefing last Friday, Commerce Secretary Ramón López expressed his support for the gradual easing of age restrictions, possibly up to 10 years, to help the country’s economy recover.

This was in accordance with the call of the Acting Secretary for Socioeconomic Planning, Karl Kendrick Chua, to allow more children and families to leave their homes to shop and spend while still observing safety protocols.

The IATF-EID only allows people ages 15 to 65 to leave their homes during the pandemic.

EDV

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