March 17, 2023
Dear Lyn Garcia,
Greetings!
Thank you for your request dated Feb 22, 2023 03:56:30 PM under Executive Order No. 2 (s. 2016) on Freedom of Information in the Executive Branch.
Your Request
You asked for State of National Emergency due to Covid.
Response to Request
Your FOI request is approved.
In March 2020, the WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO) declared the COVID-19 as a global pandemic ensued with the issuance of the Office of the President Proclamation No. 9222, or the State of Public Health Emergency . With Proclamation No. 922 being used on March 8, 2020 and remains to be in effect until lifted by the current President , the country has been placed under a state of public health emergency in light of the threat of COVID-19, in which the Department of Health(DOH) has anchored its policies and guidelines on COVID-19 mitigation strategies.
Subsequently, through a whole-off-society approach, the DOH, together with the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF-EID), the National Task Force (NTF) , and various national government agencies, technical working groups, and expert groups were tasked to provide national guidance to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 disease and address the catastrophic effects brought about by the pandemic.
Nearly three years since the first COVID-19 cases was detected, it has continually infected millions of people globally and numerous deaths reported due to the infection. Consequently, the World Health Organization (WHO) still considers the COVID-19 as an acute global health emergency. In response to this , the country remains to consider COVID-19 as a public health priority, with our mitigation strategies in place while we steer away from the emergency phase and transition towards endemicity. As part of the main implications of its lifting, routine health and safety protocols are updated to include ventilation, infectious disease, and healthy settings protocols (communities, school, workplace and transport) . The DOH remains to be consistent in the provision of updated sectoral policies and recommendations for the safe reopening of the country.
For further queries and concerns, you may contact us via email at
[email protected].
Your right to request a review
If you are unhappy with this response to your FOI request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review of the response by writing to the Central Appeals and Review Committee, at
[email protected]. Your review request should explain why you are dissatisfied with this response, and should be made within 15 calendar days from the date when you received this letter. We will complete the review and tell you the result within 30 calendar days from the date when we receive your review request.
Kindly accomplish the FOI Request Feedback form at the link: https://bit.ly/DOHFOIFeedbackForm
If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Office of the President under Administrative Order No. 22 (s. 2011).
Thank you.
Respectfully,
FOI Decision Maker
FOI Receiving Officer
