LAST August, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he was not keen on lifting the state of public health emergency in the country due to COVID-19 until the end of the year. It is already the end of January, 2023 and still, that state of emergency is still in place.
Marcos’ explanation was that the Philippines receives a lot of assistance from the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international institutions because of the official reckoning that there exists a state of emergency. Without this, the aid from WHO and others will vanish.
The Chief Executive said he has endorsed to Congress amendments to the procurement law, but since this will obviously take time, the state of public health emergency should stay. We are at a loss on how the laws on government procurement and the COVID-19 status are directly related, but let us give it to the President for he has access to data and information that we do not have.
Dr. Rontgene Solante, chairman of San Lazaro Hospital’s adult infectious diseases and tropical medicine unit and a member of the DOH vaccine expert panel, said he believes that because of the vaccines, the world is no longer in an emergency situation.
‘Dr. Rontgene Solante, chairman of San Lazaro Hospital’s adult infectious diseases and tropical medicine unit and a member of the DOH vaccine expert panel, said he believes that because of the vaccines, the world is no longer in an emergency situation.’
He said that after three years, COVID is no longer a public health emergency although it remains a global concern.
“We have all these interventions now compared to three years ago. We have a lot of these antiviral agents that can really prevent severe infections,” Solante said in a TV interview.
We agree with his observations and also note that even China, which has endured two huge waves of the COVID-19 pandemic over a period of three years that necessitated strict lockdowns and economic restrictions, has now reopened.
The WHO emergency committee on COVID-19 convened on January 27 to discuss whether it should lift the state of international public health emergency although it has yet to announce its decision.
Lifting of the public health emergency can happen anytime now, as the government is just waiting for the cue from the World Health Organization.
Should the state of public health emergency be lifted, the experts urged Filipinos, especially the vulnerable population, to continue observing minimum health protocols for protection against the coronavirus.
