PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. has lifted the state of public health emergency throughout the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic, more than three years after the health crisis struck.
Marcos issued Proclamation No. 297 on Friday stating that “all prior orders, memoranda, and issuances that are effective only during the State of Public Health Emergency shall be deemed withdrawn, revoked or canceled and shall no longer be in effect.”
But the proclamation also stated that all of the emergency use authorization (EUA) issued by the Food and Drug Administration pursuant to Executive Order No. 121 will remain valid for one year from the date of lifting the state of public health emergency so that the remaining COVID-19 vaccines that the government has could still be used.
EO No. 121 allows the FDA to issue EUAs for the administration of COVID-19 drugs and vaccines.
The proclamation called on all concerned agencies to ensure that their policies, rules and regulations will take into consideration the lifting of the state of public health emergency, and to amend existing or promulgate new issuances.
It also stated that although COVID-19 remains to be a serious concern for certain subpopulation and requires continued public health response, the Philippines has been able to maintain sufficient healthcare system capacity and low hospital bed utilization rates.
This was the case even with the relaxation of COVID-19 health protocols, it noted.
Then President Rodrigo Duterte declared a state of public health emergency in March 2020, after the country recorded its first confirmed local COVID-19 case.
Republic Act No. 11332 defines a public health emergency as “an occurrence or imminent threat of an illness or health condition” which could pose a high probability of “a large number of deaths in the affected population.”
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared in May 2023 that COVID-19 is no longer a global health emergency.
Nearly seven million individuals succumbed to COVID-19 globally, based on the data reported to WHO.
The Philippines, meanwhile, recorded more than 66,000 COVID-19 deaths from January 3, 2020 to July 19, 2023.
