According to Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, the Department of Health (DOH) hopes to conclude its COVID-19 transition plan by the middle of next week.
Duque claimed he met with the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) and the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) principals to discuss the country’s transition to the new normal in an interview with the ANC.
“Let’s wait for that dahil doon malinaw [because it will be clear there] what we call the new normal roadmap. This is something that we will launch as soon as all the inputs from the different sectors have been submitted kasi hindi naman to madaling gawin [it’s not easy to do],” he said.
“This is really a map. Very comprehensive ‘yung shifting to the new normal and realizing of course that we will live with the virus. I think that’s an important philosophical underthinking that the virus is here to stay, so we have to live with it,” he added.
DOH to release COVID-19 transition plan next week
On the other hand, Duque said the DOH couldn’t predict for sure whether COVID-19 infections would resurface. Still, that part of the transition plan’s implementation involves educating people to be ready in case of unexpected outbreaks.
Senator Panfilo Lacson, a presidential candidate, requested the Department of Health about its transition strategy on Tuesday as part of his drive for the Philippines to prepare for the transition from pandemic to endemic status.
Duque stated that as part of this shift, they already have a procedure to assess COVID-19 test costs and may consider putting a cap on them.
“Those are what I would call the low-hanging fruits, that we should provide our people with more affordable testing fees without sacrificing the quality of the results. It’s important that accuracy is on top of mind,” he said.
“Most of the health services have been devolved to the LGUs. So kami, technical support, and when there is a slack or a gap, then we try to fill it up on a temporary basis until the LGUs are able to provide adequate supplies of these Kalinga kits,” he added.
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