DOH chief urges passage of emerging diseases bill

Maria Rosario Vergeire, officer in charge of the Department of Health (DOH), urged Congress on Friday to pass by year-end the health agency’s proposed law that would allow the government to maintain their responses to emerging diseases even without a state of calamity.

According to Vergeire, the DOH presented its proposed Public Health Emergency for Emerging and Reemerging Diseases Bill to the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council and it was later deemed as one of the priority bills by President Marcos himself.

“So [when] the state of calamity ends, maybe by the end of the year, if this law is passed, we don’t have to worry about anything, because this … will become the basis of different actions that we will do in terms of public health emergency,” she said in a press conference.

Asked what lawmakers said of the bill, Vergeire said “we were able to explain to the legislators how important this [is], especially that we are all linked or tied to the state of calamity declaration.”

Under the proposed bill, the government can continue to enforce COVID-19 preventive measures, such as vaccine procurement and implementation, as well as the provision of benefits for health-care workers and other pandemic-related programs, even without the current state of calamity, Vergeire added.

The health official also noted that the bill would include key components on how the country should respond during a health crisis.

In September, Mr. Marcos signed Proclamation No. 57 extending the period of state of national calamity throughout the country until Dec. 31 this year.

The country was first placed under a state of national calamity for six months in March 2020 as the number of COVID-19 cases spread to uncontrollable levels. It allowed the government to tap funds allotted for emergencies. It was then extended twice.

Meanwhile, Vergeire, as chair of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, said she would recommend “in the coming days” the “decoupling” of restrictions from alert levels, a move earlier proposed by the President. INQ

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