17-year-old Ira Marie Omolon (right) gets her 1st dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at Southwestern University (SWU) on November 8, 2021 | CDN Digital Photo by Morexette Marie B. Erram
CEBU CITY, Philippines – The business community here continues to urge the public to take their booster shots of the COVID-19 vaccine as the country saw an increase in the number of new infections, believed to be largely due to a new variant.
The Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) made this statement after President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. bared his administration’s plans to reinstate the face mask rule to prevent further spread of COVID-19.
Should the national government proceed with their plans, the CCCI will support it, said its President Charles Kenneth Co.
“The business community will be supportive of a masked mandate to limit the spread of the new variant,” Co told CDN Digital in a text message.
The CCCI official also said they find the mandatory face mask rule a reasonable measure in curbing the spread of COVID-19.
“So far, it doesn’t pose a critical threat to mandate a reduction in operating capacity for public establishment,” added Co.
However, the rise of COVID-19 cases in the country should also prompt the public to take their booster shots, Co said.
“The delayed rollout of the bivalent booster shot is another cause for concern,” he explained.
“We hope we can learn from the past and exhaust all means to have the booster shots as soon as possible especially to our health care professionals and vulnerable population,” he added.
On Sunday, President Marcos said the government might bring back the mandatory use of face masks in the Philippines amid the recent rise in COVID-19 cases.
Cebuano netizens, for their part, expressed mixed opinions on this development, according to the results of an informal survey CDN Digital has launched on its social media handles.
“Ok ra man ang face mask protection sa abog ug aso gikan sa mga sakyanan. Ayaw lang apili ug face shields,” wrote Facebook user Antonio Lebumfacil.
“No more facemask… Sabad-sabad ranas nawong. Nagcomment rako kay naluoy nakus sitwasyon sa mga tawo naglisud na lisdun pag samot,” said another user Wyne Cy.
President Marcos said his administration is studying the current trends of COVID-19, particularly looking at the rate of increase of the occurrence and its baseline, among other factors.
COVID-19 cases nationwide have been on the rise in recent weeks amid the entry of new Omicron sublineages found to have a growth advantage.
Fresh COVID-19 cases climbed to 858 on Friday, bringing the country’s total active case count to 5,293, based on the COVID-19 tracker data of the Department of Health (DOH)./ with reports from INQUIRER.net
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