Restart economy with expanded testing, modified quarantine –PDRF

The Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF), a private sector disaster management organization, offered a plan in which the enhanced community quarantine would be lifted and the economy restarted but in a safe manner that minimized the risk of a spike in the number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infections.

In a Saturday statement, PDRF Chief Resilience Officer Guillermo M. Luz pointed out it was unrealistic to expect a further extension of the ECQ given that workers had no means at a livelihood,  businesses could not continue to bear the cost of funding an economic shutdown, and the government could not continue expending resources supporting citizens and small businesses.

It was therefore inevitable that the economy needed to be reopened.

However, Luz said that if three aspects were addressed, this could be accomplished with the COVID-19 risks minimized.

Among the aspects to be addressed was expanded COVID-19 testing beyond the 10,000 PCR machine tests per day. This could be accomplished through Antibody Rapid Tests.

“The proper use of these tests will enable communities to screen people who can return to work versus those who must remain under quarantine or go for confirmatory testing,” Luz explained. “This will allow healthy people to re-enter work with some comfort that they are working alongside similarly healthy people.”

A modified community quarantine could also help in the reopening of the economy. Through the modified quarantine, industries and segments of the workforce that needed to return to work would be identified.

“These can be industries with high employment potential, high value-added to the economy, or are essential businesses,” said Luz.

Industries that can provide safe accommodations and testing, such as food manufacturing, factories, infrastructure, and construction, would also be ideal candidates for re-starting.

To allow mobility for this initial workforce, limited public and private transportation would be allowed.

“Equally important would be to identify which segments of the workforce should be kept out of the workplace during the initial stages of MCQ. This includes people who can continue work-from-home arrangements as well as people who are at risk of catching COVID,” said the PDRF exec.

Another method would be to limit the quarantine to certain locations that have a high incidence of cases relative to population.

“The point is to thin out the workforce population by calibrating its entry and expanding re-entry as immunity takes hold or as the cases drop and treatment becomes manageable,” added Luz.

Finally, the PDRF emphasized that the government needed to make it clear as soon as possible what steps were being taken to reopen the economy to enable workers, businesses, and people to plan their lives.

“With the lockdown extension due to expire, now would be a good time to make such an announcement,” said Luz. — DVM, GMA News