After three years and four months since former president Rodrigo Duterte issued Proclamation No. 922 which declared a State of Public Health Emergency all over the country amidst the onset of COVID-19 in March 2020, President Bong Bong Marcos (PBBM) has lifted the State of Public Health Emergency throughout the Philippines due to COVID-19 through Proclamation No. 297.

While people have effectively been acting as the pandemic has been over since the start of the year, the proclamation means that “prior orders, memoranda, and issuances that are effective only during the State of Public Health Emergency shall be deemed withdrawn, revoked or canceled and shall no longer be in effect.”

In addition, all the EUA (emergency use authorization) issued by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) pursuant to Executive Order (EO) No. 121 (s. 2020) shall remain valid for a period of one year from the date of the lifting of the State of Public Health Emergency for the sole purposes of exhausting the remaining vaccines.

The lifting of the public health emergency due to COVID follows the announcement of the World Health Organization last May that COVID-19 is no longer a global health emergency, thanks to the disease becoming endemic in many countries.

While COVID is still present in the country, lower and lower cases logged each day as well as improved access to vaccines and overall herd immunity to the virus has reduced its effect on day-to-day life significantly versus the early days of the pandemic.