While the recent lifting of the state of public health emergency due to COVID-19 throughout the country is something we have been looking forward to as we usher in this “better normal”—especially so that this was foregrounded by policies relaxing public health protocols and easing travel restrictions to shore up the economy and keep up with the rest of the world—we should be reminded that this is not yet the end of the coronavirus disease. This is not what is meant by the lifting.
On the day it was lifted, July 21, the Philippines had a total of 4,171,063 cases since the first case was reported in March 2020. As of this writing, 66,542 Filipinos have died and 5,278 are still considered active cases. Globally, there are still countries reporting new cases each day. Thus, the lifting does not mean that we can already put our guard down.
What this means is that because of the declining trend of cases and deaths, improvements in immunity, and more manageable health-care utilization, the country is already transitioning—not terminating—its response from the crisis mode to the long-term management of COVID-19 which hopefully becomes endemic (as common and predictable as the flu) very soon.
After three years, exactly 1,233 days since the state of public health emergency was declared in our country, rather than bask in the celebration of its lifting, it is more fitting to look back and look ahead at boosting our public health emergency preparedness system to be able to better prevent, prepare for, and respond to similar health threats and issues in the future.
In this regard, the following steps should be in order:
• Strengthening our health-care infrastructure by improving the capacities of hospitals, clinics, and laboratories and ensuring the availability of critical medical supplies, equipment, and medications so they have the capacity to handle a surge in patients during emergencies.
• Boosting public health capacities in terms of disease prevention, detection, and response, including the enhancement of surveillance and early warning systems for pandemics and disasters.
• Improving response to health threats by developing robust and well-defined emergency plans tailored to different health hazards outlining roles and responsibilities, coordination mechanisms, resource allocation strategies, and communication protocols.
• Enhancing interagency coordination with other government agencies and sectors, and collaboration with the private sector, civil society, and other stakeholders to ensure a unified and effective response.
• Fostering international collaboration to leverage expertise, share best practices, and access resources during emergencies.
• Encouraging community engagement through the conduct of public awareness campaigns to educate communities about their roles in resilience and involve them in planning and response.
• Investing in research and development to keep abreast with the latest scientific advancements and develop innovative solutions to combat emerging health threats.
• Securing health-care financing to allocate sufficient funds for preparedness and response activities.
• Sustaining the development, training, and exercises of the health workforce to improve their competencies and skills and test plans for response and coordination.
• Learning from lessons and experiences through continuous monitoring, evaluation, and feedback to assess the effectiveness of initiatives and translation of good practices to policies and strategies.
With our optimist’s glasses on, the end of COVID-19 is clearly in sight but our vision for a more secure and resilient Philippines and world, in fact, has just started to get clearer.
Let us look at this moment as the best time to build better for the next one.
Ronald Law is a public health practitioner with expertise in health emergencies. He investigated the topic of health security as a Fulbright scholar shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the world.