People who are vaccinated against COVID-19 should be allowed to move more freely compared to those who haven't been jabbed, President Rodrigo Duterte's adviser on entrepreneurship said Tuesday.
Increased mobility should be promoted as the incentive for getting vaccinated, more than freebies, discounts and raffles, businessman Joey Concepcion told ANC.
Concepcion said the RT-PCR test requirement before flights should be lifted in favor of vaccination cards. He said this would help revive tourism and subsequently, livelihoods "demolished" by the pandemic.
The private sector also proposes for seniors to be allowed in public, such as dine in restaurants, he said.
"The real incentive of taking the vaccine is to stay alive and that they'd be given greater mobility... We should be allowed using these LGU vaccination cards and be able to fly without PCR tests," he told ANC Headstart, noting such tests are too expensive for Filipinos already burdened by the pandemic.
"In the end, it's not that we only have to save lives. We have livelihoods that have been demolished during this pandemic," he added.
'National Bakuna Card'
After over a year of ever-changing lockdowns, vaccines are the "game-changer", said Concepcion. After a talk with Tourism Sec. Bernadette Romulo-Puyat that elicited a "positive" response, he said he would meet with various health experts advising the IATF to discuss the private sector's recommendations.
From the LGU vaccination card, the goal is to have a "national bakuna card", essentially a vaccine passport that restores every vaccinated Filipino's pre-COVID mobility, such as unrestricted international travel.
Like the flu, COVID will be here for the long haul and thus, people will have to be inoculated yearly for continuous protection. The catch-all vaccination card will be a "good identification", Concepcion said, noting it will most likely be digitalized.
Concepcion said granting mobility to those vaccinated would not be discriminatory to those who refuse to get vaccinated.
"Every Filipino has the right to choose but if they choose to not to be vaccinated, then their movement should be limited. Those who have been vaccinated, you have to grant them more movement, more access to different areas and tourist spots. How can we revive the tourism sector if we will not be open to this?," he said.
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