MANILA – Several businesses “prefer” to have a lockdown next month to immediately arrest the spread of coronavirus disease 2019’s (COVID-19) Delta variant than have stricter community quarantine policies in the last quarter of the year, a Malacañang adviser said on Wednesday.
The months of September, October, November and December are more profitable for business, according to Joey Concepcion, presidential adviser on Entrepreneurship.
“This is the quarter where consumers spend for Christmas. This is the quarter where election spending is expected to pour in,” he said. “This is the quarter that would spell the difference what 2022 would be.”
August would be a good month to implement a “circuit-breaker lockdown” as most businesses limit spending during this time as auspicious investors consider it as a “ghost month.”
“August is a ghost month. It is the weakest month for most of us so… The whole strategy is to hit it now if a lockdown is inevitable,” he pointed out.
“We prefer that we should solve the problem early than wait for the problem to become bigger and then lockdown for months,” added Concepcion.
Independent research group OCTA has been urging the government to impose a “circuit-breaking” lockdown to arrest the spread of coronavirus infections due to the highly transmissible Delta COVID-19 variant.
President Rodrigo Duterte earlier stated that the Philippines cannot afford another lockdown, but noted that he might consider it should there be another surge of COVID cases due to the Delta variant.
“We cannot afford more lockdowns lest our economy bleeds to the point of irreversible damage,” Duterte said during his final State of the Nation Address.
As of July 24, Philippines has confirmed 119 Delta variant cases.
The Department of Health has also tallied 94 additional Alpha variant cases, 179 Beta variant cases, and nine cases of the P.3 variant or the variant first detected in the Philippines.(ABS-CBN News)
