President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. said that primary health care is on top of the government's agenda in both fighting health crises and sustaining the effective delivery of essential health services as the country continues to address the Covid-19 pandemic.
Marcos said this in a meeting with Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), on Tuesday, October 25. The WHO official paid a courtesy visit to the Chief Executive in Malacañang.
In his remarks, the President cited the importance of addressing the health crisis and continue serving the people.
"We need to do that, especially now that we have learned many lessons from this pandemic," Marcos said.
"It is the time to start. Even in the psychology of our people, they think that we are now managing Covid very well," he added.
President Marcos also called for a renewed focus on general public health concerns as cases of other diseases have increased with the emergence of new Covid-19 variants.
" bring back to other issues that were neglected during the height of the pandemic. There's so much to do. We have to take care of our people," he said.
For his part, Ghebreyesus said that while more Covid-19 variants emerge, the pandemic has yielded so many lessons, like the role of adequate testing and preparedness in battling disease outbreaks.
"I don't think we will need different tools than we have now. It's a matter of immediately detecting and using tools to stop it," he said.
"If we continue to be vigilant, we can solve it. So what I expect is for the future, maybe in the next few months or more, I think we will move forward," he added.
Ghebreyesus is in the country to participate in the 73rd WHO - Western Pacific Regional Committee Meeting (WPRCM) held in Manila from October 24 to 28.