The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said the Omicron variant will not slam the Philippines' growth prospects for the year, saying the fresh blow of tighter quarantine controls is only temporarily.

Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua admitted on Wednesday, Jan. 5, that the virus, which was first reported in Wuhan, China in late 2019, is not going to go away easily.

The emergence of new variants, such as the highly transmissible Delta and Omicron, has shown the world that the COVID-19 virus is not going to simply disappear, Chua said in a statement.

But the good news is, Chua said “even as we temporarily impose more stringent restrictions to contain the spread of the Omicron variant, we have learned to manage the risks and live with the virus.”

The Philippines expects its economy, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), will grow by seven percent to nine percent this year. However, Metro Manila and nearby provinces went back to the more strict Alert Level 3 from Jan. 3 to 15.

“Economic prospects in 2022 still remain promising, and we urge everyone to play their role in the recovery by getting vaccinated, availing of booster shots, and strictly adhering to the minimum public health standards,” Chua said.

The heightened alert level in the first few weeks of the year was in response to the sustained rise in daily infections of COVID-19 in the country.

The number of cases in Metro Manila, Calabarzon and Central Luzon has been increasing rapidly during the past two weeks. The positivity rate has also breached the 10 percent mark, or twice the World Health Organization’s standard of less than five percent.

The Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX) said that Metro Manila’s return to a stricter alert level is “a setback,” but necessary to control the significant increase in the number of new daily confirmed COVID-19 cases.

“Granted that this is a setback given that Metro Manila was placed under Alert Level 2 just last November 2021, most establishments can still continue operations although at lower capacities under Alert level 3,” FINEX said.

“We urge not just these establishments but everyone to strictly adhere to protocols that have been established to slow down transmission,” the group added.