Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez yesterday said stricter Implementation of government’s prevent, detect, isolate, treat and reintegrate (PDITR) is key to eventually giving back jobs to over a million Filipinos.
At the town hall session of the Department of Health yesterday, Lopez said as the number of new coronavirus disease 2019 cases decline, more sectors of the economy will be allowed to reopen.
Lopez said as of March, unemployment rate stood at 7.1 percent, leaving 3.4 million unemployed.
That is compared with the pre-pandemic level unemployment rate 5.3 percent in January 2020 when 2.39 million were unemployed.
“There are about 1 million more that had been affected since the pandemic. We hope we could help them get back their jobs by strengthening the implementation of PDITR,” Lopez said.
He encouraged private sector to secure Safety Seal certification to spur demand that would sustain business and jobs.
The seal, Lopez said, is the ticket to regaining consumer confidence while ensuring minimum health standards are observed.
“The decline in the number of cases will give way to the further reopening the economy,” he said. – Irma Isip
