THE government hopes to make a decision in two weeks on whether or not to allow salons, barber shops and dine-in restaurants to operate but these will have to secure accreditation, according to Secretary Ramon Lopez of the Department of Trade and Industry,
This was after Lopez and National Task Force (NTF) against COVID-19 Chief Implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez last Sunday conducted an inspection of health and safety protocols demonstrations of three salons and barbershops, as well as how a dine-in operation can implement the health protocol.
Lopez said he and Galvez will recommend to the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infection Diseases an extra set of special guidelines for these sectors and have either an accreditation system or a strict operations audit procedure those reopening.
“With this system in place, there can be an earlier-than-scheduled reopening for those that will be prepared,” he said.
According to Lopez, salons and barbershops alone employ over 400,000 people.
“We saw that these establishments even went further and innovated to ensure the protection of their clients and workers. Based on what we will see in the country’s health progress, if deaths and transmissions continue to go down, maybe we can allow some more to open up,” Galvez said.
He added an accreditation/audit system will be implented in coordination with DTI, health and safety officials of local government units (LGUs), and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
