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Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III was quoted last week as saying that “aside from our health-care workers, we will prioritize vaccinating our economic front-line workforce.” Sec. Dominguez, who heads President Rodrigo Duterte’s economic team, also reported that they are fast-tracking the rollout of the country’s vaccination program noting that “the doses we are acquiring are more than enough to inoculate 100 percent of the country’s adult population (70 million people out of our total population of 110 million people).”

Finding the pivotal balance between containing the spread of Covid-19 and allowing more sectors such as travel and tourism to reopen is the key to recovery after the 9.5-percent gross domestic product slump in 2020.

Placing the entire nation under the least restrictive quarantine level should not be a cause for concern. The looser restrictions aim to encourage more people to go out and participate in increased economic activities. The laxer conditions do not, in any way, call for a lowering of one’s guard or the abandonment of health protocols to stop the spread of Covid-19.