The group of businessmen demanded that the Inter-Agency Task Force allow all workers to enter when the company’s vaccination rate reaches 80 percent.
For Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion, who is part of the group, the efficiency of the workers will be reduced if it is purely work-for-home so that the setup can be a mix of office and home.
Concepcion had earlier proposed having “safe spaces” in offices, where workers who have already received the COVID-19 vaccine have a separate space.
“Unvaccinated people will be allowed… to stay in the same area of the workplace, but they will be required to wear basically face mask and face shields,” explained Concepcion.
There is no discrimination because all customers will be allowed to enter the establishment.
For example, in a restaurant, the safe space can be a separate area for vaccinated, senior citizens, and non-vaccinated, but everyone can enter.
For the Defend Jobs Philippines group, in general, the workers really prefer to return to the office.
But the government must first make sure that public transportation is safe because not everyone has their own vehicle.
Also read: DENR to test waters in WPS amid alleged human waste dumping by China ships
Allow all employees if 80% of workers already vaccinated: group
Apart from the lack of public utility vehicles, there is also no social distancing between them because the passengers are very close to each other.
Meanwhile, the private sector’s order of 1.17 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines is scheduled to arrive on Friday. It will all be injected as the first dose.
About 420,000 doses will be distributed to some local government units and companies participating in the second batch of the order.
The Philippines has also received one million more doses of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, July 14.
According to the Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) evaluation of Sinovac’s vaccine, it has the following efficacy rates:
- 65% to 91% among healthy individuals aged 18 to 59,
- 50.4% for health workers, and
- 51% to 52% on senior citizens or those aged 60 and above
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