The government also deliberates the country’s exit plan from the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles and acting presidential spokesperson said Wednesday.
“We’ve always been talking about that,” Nograles said in a television interview when asked if the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) is considering the crafting of a pandemic exit plan.
Nograles said the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) has its own sub-technical working group (TWG) on recovery, working on resolutions for the gradual reopening of the economy, reviving tourism industries, and resumption of face-to-face classes.
“So may task group kami diyan (we have a task group for that) and they are the ones that are building up and putting the details to this resiliency plan that we have,” he said.
“And now, we also have Alert Level 1 that we’re also hoping to be able to implement, and that really puts a premium now in, you know, empowering now the people to do the proper protocols, iyong (the) minimum public health standards because they are already fully vaccinated and many are already boosted,” he added.
Nograles also said the government has yet to hear from the health experts whether the country will treat the Covid-19 like “seasonal flu.”
“We have to wait for what the health experts will tell us. Right now, wala pa talagang consensus diyan eh (there is no consensus yet on that),” he said.
The health authorities earlier reported a decline in the country’s active cases and even hospitalization rate due to the increasing number of vaccinated individuals in the country.
“So, that shows that the vaccines work. So, many are hopeful but cautious pa rin ‘yung optimism ng lahat (the optimism of everyone). So it’s still a little bit of wait and see, but there’s a hope in seeing this as being more of like a seasonal flu,” Nograles said.
In a Laging Handa public briefing on Wednesday, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said though the government does not yet engage itself with the “endemic” term, the direction is to see “that all of us can live with the virus.”
“But let us try to see first kasi itong endemicity marami pong components ‘yan – kailangan makita natin sustained talaga, iyong naku-control na iyong numero ng mga kaso, nakikita natin na marami nang bakunado, nakikita natin iyon pong mga nagkakasakit na mga severe infections hindi na rin po ganoon kadami (because this endemicity has many components – we need to see sustained, controlled number of cases, more people are vaccinated, and fewer severe infections),” she said. (PNA)
