For Philippine medical community, pandemic has ended

MANILA, Philippines — For the medical community, the COVID-19 pandemic in the country has come to an end.

In an interview Friday with “The Chiefs” on One News, Dr. Maricar Limpin, immediate past president of the Philippine College of Physicians, said, “As far as we are concerned, I think it has ended because on the ground, we are not seeing too many (COVID-19) cases anymore.”

“In fact,” Limpin added, “the patients we are seeing right now are all non-COVID cases.”

“The medical community has been active in the non-COVID scenario so there are just a few remaining cases for COVID,” said Limpin.

The medical expert likewise said, “We are just waiting for the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare (COVID endemic)… Actually, we have long been waiting for WHO to make such a declaration.”

Limpin added, “I think the WHO is just waiting for the result of their surveillance that right now, only a few deaths from COVID are being recorded and there are less severe infections being transmitted. That is what they are looking at now.”

“But I think we are already there. Even among the health experts, even among the (medical) practitioners, we are not that wary anymore about COVID-19,” said Limpin.

“If you look at the Philippines and comparing the Philippines with other countries, I think we are in a better position because our positivity rate and the number of people being infected and dying from COVID-19 is far lower compared to even developed countries like the US and European countries,” the health expert said.

She pointed out, “I think the primary reason why we are doing better is because many of our people are still wearing masks.”

However, Limpin said, “Our main concern is the transmission of the disease to the vulnerable population. These are the elderly, those with lowered immune system because among this vulnerable population, there are still those dying from COVID-19,” she noted.

She added, “Many of them did not have any vaccination or if they had vaccination, maybe just the primary series. They didn’t receive boosters. That is the problem so I think we need to step up as far as vaccination is concerned.”

“There was so many misinformation that circulated so the government has to step up with the vaccination program. We are not just talking about COVID vaccination here because in reality, uptake for all kinds of vaccination, even expanded immunization across all different infections, is low primarily because of the vaccine hesitancy brought about by misinformation of the [anti-vaxxers],” stressed Limpin.

She also cited the possibility of another emerging infection threatening the country’s health care system.

Asked if the country is prepared for this, Limpin said, “It depends because we need the proper infrastructure for that. We need to strengthen our health system. I’m hoping that the government will be able to put up all the necessary infrastructure for us to be able to prevent another emerging infection.”

She added, “It will then depend on how fast the government will respond because it will respond according to the budget. There are restrictions and limitations as far as the government is concerned, but we also need to get data and conduct a study on this.”

Earlier, a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed that 93 percent of adult Filipinos are hopeful the worst of the COVID-19 crisis in the country is over.

The Department of Health also reported that local government units in Metro Manila recorded decreasing COVID cases, with OCTA Research Fellow Guido David noting that the positivity rate, or the percentage of people found positive for SARS-CoV-2 among the total number of individuals tested in the National Capital Region, remained below five percent