
Vaccine rollout needed for economy to recover — econ head
by MARIE CLAIRE "BLANCHE" S. LAGRISOLA
THE GOVERNMENT should have its citizens vaccinated to achieve the projected positive change in the economy, Faculty of Arts and Letters Economics Department Chair Carlos Manapat said on Monday in a webinar, UST Economic Outlook 2021: The Cost of our Choices.
Manapat predicted a gross domestic product growth rate of 1.2 percent by the second quarter of 2022, but without the vaccination programs that will provide immunity to the citizens, he said that the economy cannot open abruptly.
“The first step is to give the vaccines and later on open the economy,” Manapat said.
The country started distributing vaccines on Monday with the arrival of 600,000 donated doses from China’s Sinovac, while more than 500,000 vaccine doses from AstraZeneca