The Metro Manila Council (MMC) urged the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) to consider easing of COVID-19 guidelines for fully-vaccinated individuals in the National Capital Region to bolster economic activities in the region.

Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Benhur Abalos, also concurrent chair of the MMC, said that easing of restrictions for fully vaccinated individuals in the metropolis would help the government's campaign to vaccinate the rest of the population and the move would gradually boost up the economy, particularly industries and services greatly hit by the pandemic.

“With the NCR being considered right now to be the epicenter of this pandemic and the region with the most number of vaccinated individuals, we are confident that we can find the right balance between safeguarding the public’s health and reviving economy,” Abalos, who is a lawyer, said.

The NCR registered around 56 percent of the eligible population or 5,492,344 individuals who have completed their doses as of September 8, while 84.21 percent of the eligible population or 8,262,558 individuals already received their first vaccine shot.

“Administering first dose of the vaccine is crucial, but approximately a month from now, since most of the COVID-19 shots have a three to four-week interval from the first shot, those who got their first jabs will eventually complete their vaccination.” he said.

“By next month (Oct. 8), we are expecting that we will reach 77.57 percent or 7,601,685 of the total eligible population in the metro to be fully-vaccinated. The more people who complete their inoculation, the sooner we can achieve population protection,” he explained.

"And since the AstraZeneca vaccine has an interval of 12 weeks at most between the first dose and the 2nd dose, we expect 87 percent of the eligible population in NCR to be vaccinated in 3 months time or not later than December 8," Abalos added.

The Metro Manila local chief executives urge the IATF to “consider the easing of the COVID-19 guidelines for full-vaccinated individuals in the NCR subject to the conduct of an inter-agency and inter-disciplinary study to determine the appropriate policy therefore based on scientific and empirical evidence,” the resolution, which was unanimously approved, cited.

Metro Manila remains under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) until September 15.

The MMC, composed of the 17 Metro Manila mayors, is the governing and policy-making body of the MMDA. MMDA