THE Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) has asked the government to provide free Covid-19 antigen test kits to the public to curb the spread of the virus amid the recent easing of quarantine measures.
In a statement on Tuesday, PCCI President George T. Barcelon stressed the importance of making such test kits available in drugstores and local barangays as the economy reopens.
The suggested retail price for antigen tests is P960.
“While our primary goal is to vaccinate majority if not all Filipinos, it is equally important that rapid antigen test kits are made available and affordable up to the grassroots level to curb the spread of Covid-19,” he said.
Noting the shortage in the antigen test kit supplies, Barcelon advised the government to ramp up its procurement elsewhere to address the demand.
He said doing so can “bolster confidence in opening up the economy,” which can bode well especially for the micro, small and medium enterprises.
Meanwhile, the PCCI official welcomed the government’s continuing vaccination rollout and implementation of Alert Level System instead of lockdown measures as this will allow the economy to move towards recovery.
“PCCI sees these as the result of a better balance between meeting the exigencies of economic concerns and the health requirements of Covid-19 response,” he added.
In an earlier interview with the BusinessMirror, Barcelon said that businesses are cautious following the Covid-19 surge last month—which has shown a slowdown recently—but highlighted their optimism.
He explained that the economy, prior to the surge due to the Omicron variant, has been showing signs of improvement, noting that the concerns in the last six months were mostly due to supply chains, citing the shortage of some production input.
“But in general, this is a national election year. And you have to extrapolate the additional campaign spending that will boost up the economy,” he added.
Still, businesses need to watch out for the developments with the shipping delays as the Omicron surge may likely close up borders, said Barcelon.
“I hope, gradually, the shipment will not be as constrained as before. I cannot tell you when. It will depend on the economy,” he said.
Metro Manila, along with Cavite, Bulacan, Rizal, Batanes, Biliran, Southern Leyte and Basilan, is under more relaxed Alert Level 2 (previously Alert Level 3) from February 1-15.