Marcos predicts: Pandemic has another year to go

Senator Imee Marcos on Thursday said she concurred with assessments that the Philippines would not reach herd immunity until the middle of next year.

“I am afraid we will not reach herd immunity until Q3 2022,” the chair of the Senate economic affairs committee said.

“If we are really lucky, maybe Q2 2022? So this pandemic has another year to go and we have to continue to be mindful,” Marcos said.

She was reacting to Oxford Economics projection that the Philippines will not achieve herd immunity until mid-2022.

Marcos said local government units and health workers had improved inoculation rates at a truly astonishing rate, given all the constraints but their efforts were hampered by the “shortage of vaccines, the unending bureaucratic delays in their release, the inequitable distribution of already meager supplies.”

“Of course all this will delay the reopening of business and hence our economic recovery, as evidenced by the negative outlook given by rating agencies,” she lamented.

“We are projected to be ‘the laggard in Southeast Asia’s recovery’ – a real indictment of our Covid management, or more accurately, mismanagement,” Marcos said.

The post Marcos predicts: Pandemic has another year to go first appeared on .

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)