Philippine officials are debating on whether to ease Covid-19 restrictions for individuals who have completed their vaccination, the Palace said on Friday.
“Isa pa nga po iyang pinagdidebatehan,” Palace spokesman Harry Roque said.
According to Roque, the country’s pandemic task force would implement what the best move would be to achieve total health.
However, Roque said some government departments had called the idea “discriminatory.”
These include the Department of Justice and the Department of Health.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Friday said the health department was open to the idea of easing restrictions for fully vaccinated persons, but “it may lead to discrimination especially to those who don’t have access to vaccines yet.”
The Philippines has fully vaccinated more than 15 million Filipinos against Covid-19.
Vergeire said it would also be unfair as fully vaccinated individuals could still transmit the virus.
“[The] DOH maintains that we still cannot differentiate between those vaccinated and unvaccinated as Covid-19 vaccines are not transmission-blocking,” she said.
The idea of implementing “bakuna bubbles,” or bubbles for fully vaccinated individuals, is being pushed by Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion.
Concepcion said such would allow the country to safely reopen the economy and encourage Filipinos to get vaccinated. John Ezekiel J. Hirro