Duterte considers looser quarantine at NCR once PH receives 2 million COVID-19 injections

MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte said on Sunday he was considering easing pandemic restrictions in Metro Manila to boost the country’s economy once the Philippines secures a stockpile of at least 2 million COVID-19 injections.

The Philippines received its first supply of vaccines on Sunday, courtesy of China’s donation of 600,000 COVID-19 injections from Beijing-based drug maker Sinovac Biotech.

“Let’s have a share of 2 million [doses], bitawan ko na. I will open the economy. Talagang hirap tayo, “Duterte said, when asked if he was considering placing Metro Manila under the lowest levels of quarantine.

(Once we have a stock of 2 million doses, I will let it go. I will open the economy. We are suffering a lot).

“People have to eat, people have to work, people have to pay for their maintenance. And the only way to do it is to open up the economy and for companies to grow again,” he said at a press conference.

Metro Manila, which accounts for a third of the country’s gross domestic product, has been under the third weakest lockdown since August.

Duterte had rejected requests to place the capital region under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ), the weakest of the 4 levels of lockdown, in March this year.

The Philippines, one of the fastest growing economies in Asia before the pandemic, last year suffered its worst GDP contraction since the end of World War II.

The Philippines was to receive 525,600 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from Britain’s AstraZeneca on March 1. However, supply problems will delay this by about a week, said Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.

The Philippines is the latest country in Southeast Asia to receive initial vaccine supplies.