Against health experts’ advice, BSP chief tells Pinoys to go out, stop ‘cowering’ at home

By JULIA MARI ORNEDO,GMA News, 6 Jan 2021

Contrary to the advice of health experts, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno encouraged Filipinos to go out even amid the coronavirus pandemic and to stop “cowering” at home to boost the economy.

According to Cedric Castillo’s “24 Oras” report on Wednesday, Diokno said visits to establishments and parks were nearing pre-pandemic levels.

“As of December 29, 2020, visits to places such as grocery and pharmacy and park have approached their pre-COVID levels,” he said.

“The important thing is [to] gain confidence. We have to learn to live with the virus. Let’s not keep cowering and hiding in our residences,” he added.

Authorities have repeatedly urged the public to stay at home and avoid going out for non-essential reasons to contain COVID-19 transmission.

The pandemic has also stretched the country’s medical resources and personnel, with exhausted health workers pleading for a temporary return to tightened restrictions last August to give them time to regroup.

Diokno said the BSP observes the government’s health guidelines.

Meanwhile, he expressed confidence that the Philippine economy will bounce back from the pandemic by the middle of 2022.

“What we’ve lost last year, we’ll fully recover by middle of next year. Not optimistic. That’s a realistic view of the economy. We have learned our lessons. And as I said, when the pandemic hit us, we were in a position of strength,” he said.

“The 6.5 to 7.5% projection for next year is based on the assumption that we will be able to vaccinate a great majority of our people by the first half of 2022. Any early introduction of the vaccine in the Philippines will even improve that.”

The Philippines aims to vaccinate 50 to 70 million Filipinos against COVID-19 in 2021. However, there are still no authorized vaccines in the country.

The country has logged 480,737 infections as of Wednesday afternoon. — BM, GMA News