Concepcion proposes three-tier COVID-19 alert level system

Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion on Tuesday proposed a three-tier COVID-19 alert level system, which would function similarly to the tropical cyclone warning system.

The government has been implementing the five-level COVID-19 alert system across the country since late last year. 

“My only suggestion is maybe we can trim it down. Instead of Alert Level 1 to 5, maybe we can trim it down to Alert Level 1 to 3 — so you have no alert, and you have the Alert Level 1 to 3,” he said in an interview with ANC.

Concepcion said his proposed alert level system will only be in place when there is a surge in cases.

“It’s the intention to really see this momentum of growth to continue. We don’t want that to be just one blip in the last year’s fourth quarter,” he said.

“We want to see at least 6% and above [growth] for the first and second quarter of this year and for us to be able to do that, we really have to open up the economy, bringing down the alert levels,” he added.

The country’s gross domestic product climbed by 7.7% in the fourth quarter of 2021, bringing the full-year growth to 5.6%.

Concepcion reiterated his earlier suggestion to gradually ease out of the alert level system should the threat of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of COVID-19 subside.

“I think if the country is really going down in cases and the levels of hospital capacity are really going down [to] very normal levels, then it’s about time that we push aside [the] alert level system,” he said.

“I’m not saying scrap it, I never said to get rid of it, I’m just saying set it aside when the situation normalizes and just refine that,” Concepcion said. — VBL, GMA News