Resto Owners Seek Vaccine Passes to Allow Seniors to Dine In

Senior citizens receive their first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the Makati Medical Center on May 12.

PHOTO BY Jerome Ascano

Restaurant owners said on May 25 that they're in favor of instituting vaccine passes to allow senior citizens to dine in.

Restaurant Owners of the Philippines, or RestoPH, requested a "bakuna badge" system from mayors and the Department of Trade and Industry, with the initial goal of "bringing out" vaccinated senior citizens, said group president Eric Teng.

Customers who are not vaccinated will still be allowed to dine in, he said.

Seniors are top priority in the vaccination drive, but existing quarantine rules prevent those above 65 years old from going out.

"We are hopeful that with the support of [local government units], we can ask them to recognize restaurants and recognize vaccinated seniors to be allowed out again just so we can give some normalcy in their lives," he added.

In Metro Manila and its surrounding provinces where a general community quarantine "with heightened restrictions" is in place, indoor dining is allowed only at 20% capacity and outdoor dining capacity is set at 50%.

While this policy is "very good" in controlling the spread of the coronavirus, Teng said as much as 90% of restaurants in the country do not have outdoor dining. An additional 20% capacity for indoor dining must be added to account for vaccinated customers, he said.

Teng hoped that their request for vaccine passes could be implemented by July, when more COVID-19 vaccines are available to the public.

Teng said the RestoPH group together with Jollibee and McDonald's will launch a "bakuna benefits program" to give discounts and promos to those who have already been vaccinated against COVID-19. The program will run from June 1 until November 30.

"Our intention is to promote vaccination and reduce hesitancy for our vaccines," he said.

This story originally appeared on Reportr.world. Minor edits have been made by the SPOT.ph editors.

Hey, Spotters! Check us out on Viber to join our Community and subscribe to our Chatbot.

We are now on Quento! Download the app and enjoy more articles and videos from SPOT.ph and other Summit Media websites.

Source: Spot PH