Vergeire hopes COVID-19 public health emergency to end in 2023

Department of Health (DOH) officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire on Monday expressed hope that the state of public health emergency due to COVID-19 will come to an end next year.

The DOH official made the remark after the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday it is hoping that COVID-19 would no longer be a global health emergency at some point in 2023. It also urged China to share information that could pinpoint how the pandemic started.

“Very hopeful tayo dahil nagbigay naman ang WHO ng ganitong deklarasyon. Pero kailangan maintindihan din ng ating mga kababayan na we still need to be very cautious dahil ang sabi nga ng WHO, titignan natin na makita pa rin natin talaga na patuloy na bumababa ang mga kaso ng mga kritikal at saka mga namamatay sa COVID-19,” Vergeire said in a radio interview.

(We are very hopeful because WHO gave this declaration. But the public also needs to understand that we still need to be very cautious because as the WHO said, we still have to see that critical cases and deaths due to COVID-19 continue to decrease.)

“We are very hopeful on this, and hopefully by next year we can already see na mali-lift na itong public health emergency na ‘to,” she added.

(We are very hopeful on this, and hopefully by next year we can already see that this public health emergency will be lifted.)

The state of public health emergency in the Philippines was declared in March 2020, the onset of the pandemic, by then-President Rodrigo Duterte.

Under Proclamation 922, the state of a public health emergency would remain in force and effect until lifted or withdrawn by the President.

The country is also currently under a state of calamity due to the coronavirus outbreak after President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos extended it until December 31, 2022.

DOH has been seeking the passage of a proposed measure that will serve as the basis for the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic even after the expiry of the declaration of the state of calamity in the country.

Second booster

In the same radio interview, Vergeire bared that about 600,000 health care workers have not received their second booster shots yet against COVID-19.

Information provided by DOH to reporters on Saturday showed that 592,202 health workers out of the 1,196,107 eligible A1 population are still due for the second booster doses.

The agency said it already provided second boosters to 603,905 health workers under the A1 category.

“Nage-encourage tayo, but as I’ve said, kahit nga sa ating healthcare workers medyo challenged tayo ngayon na kumbinsihin pa rin ‘yung mga iba nating health care workers. Although itong second booster naman, sinasabi ng ating mga eksperto, this is additional na proteksyon,” Vergeire said.

(We are encouraging them, but as I've said, even among our healthcare workers, we are a bit challenged now to convince some of them. Our experts have said that the second booster is an additional protection.)

She stressed that it is still the first booster shot that would protect the population from severe and critical complications of COVID-19.

Vergeire also cited the complacency of some of the health workers with the protection elicited by the first booster as a reason for the hesitancy.

Currently, the second booster shot is available only for frontline healthcare workers, senior citizens, and persons with comorbidities aged 18 and above.  —KBK, GMA Integrated News