Second phase of national action plan vs. COVID-19 to be presented to IATF — Lorenzana

The second phase of the National Action Plan which aims to curb COVID-19 is already being crafted, according to Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Thursday.

During an online forum, Lorenzana said the next phase would contain measures in easing the lockdown for the economy to recover.

"We have the national action plan that was crafted by the national task force. We are again crafting another one because the first part which is three months, April, May, June..." Lorenzana said.

"The objective [is] different from this month because we are now able to contain the virus and there's a need to craft another campaign or action plan to ease the lockdown and to return the economy into a little bit normal, the lives of people into a little bit normal," he added.

According to Lorenzana, the proposed second phase of the National Action Plan would be presented to the inter-agency task force by today [Thursday].

He also said the first phase of the plan has been successful despite criticisms of detractors as it supposedly yielded good results.

Lorenzana is the chairman of the National Action Plan against COVID-19. The vice chairman is Interior Secretary Eduardo Año while the chief implementer is Secretary Carlito Galvez.

So far, the Philippines logged a total of 38,511 COVID-19 cases, with 10,438 recoveries and 1,270 deaths. — RSJ, GMA News