For areas to go back to ECQ is not wise, bad for business — Palace adviser

MANILA, Philippines — It is not wise to place some areas in the country under a strict enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) as it would shut down businesses that already took a hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic, presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion said on Tuesday.

“I don’t think it is wise to move back to ECQ because at this point in time as most businesses are at a brink of collapse. With allowing 30 percent to enter their restaurants, nobody is entering the restaurant as a lot of Filipinos are scared to get contaminated,” Concepcion said in an online GoNegosyo forum when asked about closing businesses with high cases.

Concepcion said isolation and testing capacity must continue in businesses to ensure that the economy will remain open.

“The economy is slow. More jobs are really lost at this point in time so what we really have to do is to maintain our vigilance, quarantine areas that have cases and commerce should continue,” he said.

Makati Mayor Abby Binay, meanwhile, said businesses can still open as long as they follow health protocols of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF-EID).

“We have not yet seen declarations from businesses saying that they are going to close down temporarily or permanently. As long as the businesses comply with IATF we are not going to have a problem. Usually, when there is an outbreak on COVID cases on certain establishments, it is caused by the failure of social distancing and wearing of masks,” Binay said during the online press conference.

Binay also noted that manpower in businesses should not increase to suppress the spread of the coronavirus disease.

JPV