PH did good job in Covid-19 response, says WHO official

The Manila Times

PH did good job in Covid-19 response, says WHO official  Dr. Rui Paulo de Jesus, World Health Organization (WHO) Philippine Country Representative answers a question by The Manila Times on the lifting of the state of public health emergency on Tuesday, July 25, 2023. De Jesus was interviewed on the side of the 75th Anniversary celebration of WHO in the Philippines in Taguig City. Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa,  Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega and WHO Western Pacific Office Representative Laura Davidson were present in. the event that also launched a photo exhibit highlighting milestones of the WHO in the country.   VIDEO BY RED MENDOZA  Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe  Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net  Follow us: Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion  Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital  Check out our Podcasts: Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer Stitcher: https://tmt.ph/stitcher Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein  #TheManilaTimes #DailyNews #Philippines #WHO #Covid19 #DFA

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00:00 What is your assessment of the country, based on your readings of the country,

00:06 your assessment of the pandemic response in the country,

00:10 and your reaction to the Philippines lifting its state of public health emergency for COVID-19,

00:18 because a few months after the World Health Organization lifted the emergency phase of the COVID-19 pandemic,

00:25 what are your thoughts about this?

00:28 Thank you. I think when the world started to fight against COVID, I was in here.

00:36 But when I look at the data, given the size of the population of the Philippines,

00:44 I think we can claim, despite the fact that I would regret to say that, you know,

00:51 about 60,000, I'm not mistaken, 66,000 deaths in the Philippines.

00:58 But I would say, comparatively, comparatively, we can say that the management to control the COVID-19

01:09 in the Philippines is quite successful.

01:12 Now, the issue now is that, let's look at it, let's document the stories,

01:19 the success stories that we have done so far, so that we can learn from them.

01:25 Of course, when I say it's a success story, but there are, of course,

01:29 many, many things within those success stories that we can learn from.

01:36 So that's the bottom line.

01:37 Now, the announcement by His Excellency, President of the Philippines,

01:46 I think this is something that has been preceded by the announcement by the Director General of the WHO

01:57 on May 5th, that COVID-19 is no longer a disease of public, yeah, PHEIC, no longer.

02:13 Now, what is this? I mean, when the EG announced this, you know,

02:18 number one is because the world wasn't ready.

02:21 I mean, tell me, no country in the world was ready for that.

02:25 Therefore, we need to raise the awareness, the concern of the global community

02:33 that this is a disease of threat to human beings, right?

02:37 And then at that time, we don't have any tool, right?

02:43 Forget about the test. The test was developed after that.

02:47 And then the last one came to us is this vaccine, right?

02:52 So these kind of things pushed WHO Director General to make that, or to declare COVID.

03:00 Now, let's look at the conditions.

03:03 I think regardless of coverage, I think particularly the booster, we are here still quite low,

03:10 but the tool is there, right? We have the ground to shoot this guy, okay, COVID-19.

03:15 We have vaccine. We have knowledge. We have experience, right?

03:19 Therefore, it's no longer a public health disease of public health concern globally, right?

03:28 However, I would like to remind all of us, despite this announcement, the virus is here.

03:34 It lives with us now, right?

03:37 Therefore, our recommendation to the government is to integrate COVID-19,

03:44 including COVID-19 vaccination, into its routine program.

03:49 So that we can do while we continue to do a good surveillance of which we have learned earlier,

03:56 so we continue to strengthen the surveillance system in case there is an increase or increased number of cases.

04:05 We are able to detect as early as we can, and therefore we are able to take action as early as we can.

04:16 So that is the situation. So thank you.

04:18 Thank you.

04:20 Thank you.

04:22 Thank you.

04:25 Thank you.

04:27 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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