GO Negosyo, led by Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Jose Maria 'Joey' Concepcion, has teamed up with SM Supermalls and Robinsons Land Corporation (RLC) for the vaccination of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) economic frontliners amid a Metro Manila-wide lockdown imposed to contain the spread of the highly infectious Delta variant of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

In a statement, Concepcion said Go Negosyo, SM and Robinsons malls recently launched close to 50 shared vaccination sites to assist and provide efficient access to vaccines to more than 300 MSMEs and their close to 170,000 employees nationwide.

He noted that there was an urgency to halt the recently detected transmission of the Delta variant through an accelerated vaccination rollout.

'The Delta variant is here, and we must prepare now. With more and more cases being recorded, it has become a tight and dangerous race between the Delta variant, the government, and private sector's efforts to vaccinate the unvaccinated,' Concepcion said.

'We need to slow down the acceleration of the Delta infections to buy us more time to inoculate the unprotected. Delta's viral load is 1,000 times higher in people infected and is 6 times more transmissible. We must prepare now and build our wall of defense by striving for herd immunity. If we do it now, we can save more lives and livelihoods,' he added.

The Go Negosyo founder stressed the necessity to make use of this ongoing lockdown to vaccinate a considerable number of people in the country's pandemic epicenter.

To stem the spread of the contagious Delta variant, the National Capital Region (NCR) went into enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) on August 6, forcing millions of residents to stay home except for going to work and getting food and essential goods and services.

The ECQ measures that include limited operations of businesses and public transport, travel restrictions, ban on large gatherings, and curfew, will remain in effect until Aug. 20, 2021.

'We need to do this as fast as we can, as we are aggressively rolling out vaccination efforts to prevent the transmission of the Delta variant across Metro Manila,' he said.

Concepcion also acknowledged the support of the country's major mall chains, SM and Robinsons, to facilitate the private sector's inoculation rollouts.

'With this, I recognize the efforts of our partners, SM and Robinsons, for facilitating a speedy private sector's vaccination rollout, and making it more accessible to our kababayans,' he added.