Some of the staff at the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) have started trekking back to their workstations beginning Monday as its host country the Philippines reports low case trends of the COVID-19 virus, enough to implement Alert Level 1.
The multilateral financial institution noted their return nearly two years after the pandemic necessitated closing down their headquarters along a section of the world-famous EDSA in Mandaluyong City.
It said the in-person presence of staff at the headquarters forms “part of a phased reoccupancy that will see the majority of the staff in HQ by July if the situation continues to improve.
Health authorities have reported vaccinating some 63 million Filipino thus far and latest reports show new cases of 1,067 and falling with each day. The bulk or 22 percent of the new infections were in the National Capital Region which includes Metro Manila.
The ADB said all its operations in Asia and the Pacific remained onstream even at the height of the pandemic, unbroken the past two years.
