You heard it right! We surpassed the Covid-19 pandemic. It was on July 21, three days before his second State of the Nation Address (Sona), when President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. lifted the state of public health emergency in the country through Proclamation 297.
The lifting was made based on the decline in deaths caused by the disease, as well as the decrease in Covid-related hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions and the public’s immunity to the virus. The International Health Regulations Emergency Committee of the World Health Organization (WHO) also acknowledged this when it declared the end to Covid-19 as a global health emergency in May three years after it broke out. The WHO stressed though that the virus is here to stay. “It is still killing and it is still changing. The risk remains of new variants emerging that cause new surges in cases and deaths,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director general.
The Philippines, as of December 22, 2023 had a total of 4,132,200 Covid-19 cases, of which 66,795 have died and 5,569 cases have remained active. The rest have recovered.
2. Passage of Maharlika Investment Fund law
