Province can go back to normal if more Negrenses will get vaccinated

Negrenses no longer want any more lockdown, want optional wearing of facemask, and want to go back to normal.

Thus said Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson today in response to the call of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on local government units (LGUs) to support his administration’s booster shot drive against Covid-19 so that face-to-face classes could resume and the country may fully reopen its economy.

“At the end of the road, we would like to go back to normal and making the use of facemask optional is a step to that direction,” Lacson said, adding that local officials have been reminded to push their respective vaccination drive especially LGUs with the poor vaccination performance.

The governor admitted that vaccination rates in the province are still below our targets.

In a virtual speech before the newly elected governors and mayors in Malacañang on Friday night, Marcos cited the importance of booster shots in building a wall of immunity and moving on from the pandemic.

At the same time, Marcos said he is open to making face masks optional, and that there will no longer be wide lockdowns in the country despite the sharp rise in the number of Covid-19 cases.

“Let’s do this booster rollout and we can make sure… there is no more lockdown as we really don’t want to have lockdowns anymore,” PBBM said.

Marcos asked local officials to help agencies in replicating the massive Covid-19 vaccine rollout conducted last year and praised them for the “very, very good job.”

He said he wants the LGUs to conduct large-scale immunization drive for booster shots targeting school children so they can safely go back to school.

Marcos has revealed the government’s plan to resume full capacity in-person learning by November this year.

If the massive vaccination drive becomes successful, the government could allow children to return to full face-to-face classes and open the rest of the economy, which Marcos said could send a signal to the rest of the world that the Philippines is opening up for business.

At the same time, Marcos said the government may consider relaxing the alert level and make masking optional but stressed that these could only be done “if it is very clear that it is really safe.”

The Philippines currently allows Covid-19 vaccination for ages 5 and up.

It recently released guidelines for additional doses for 12- to 17-year-olds.* (EYA)