OVER 90,000 workers were displaced during the two-week enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in the National Capital Region (NCR), according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
This was lower than DOLE’s initial projection that around 300,000 to 400,000 workers will be displaced due to the lockdown from August 6 to 20, 2021.
In an online press briefing, Labor Assistant Secretary Dominique R. Tutay said the affected workers were permanently or temporarily displaced by 3,000 companies, when NCR was placed under ECQ.
“You have to note that our figure is for formal sector workers only. It does not include the informal sector workers and repatriated OFWs [overseas Filipino workers], who are joining the unemployed,” Tutay said.
Prior to the ECQ in NCR, she said they registered in the region 255,000 workers, who lost their jobs, and 1.17 million workers who were temporarily displaced.
DOLE earlier said it hopes no further ECQ in NCR and its surrounding provinces will be implemented so as to minimize the number of displaced workers this year.
Among the measures the government is eyeing to prevent similar large-scale lockdowns is the mass vaccination of workers.
In NCR, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Abalos said 75 percent or 11.7 million of the 14 million adult population in NCR already got their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Of these, 7.3 million got their first dose, and the balance of 4.2 million are considered fully vaccinated.
DOLE is also pushing for the vaccination of more workers in Calabarzon, Central Luzon, Central Visayas to minimize the need of lockdowns in such areas.
Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said the National Task Force Against Covid-19 granted his request for 452,000 Covid-19 doses, to be administered to workers in construction and manufacturing in the said regions.
“We believe doing this would speed up economic recovery,” he said.