MANILA — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is expected "soon" to formally order the lifting of the COVID-19 public health emergency in the Philippines, Health Secretary Ted Herbosa said Tuesday.

"Sabi niya [Marcos] kasi 'de facto,' parang naka-lift na rin tayo. Optional na ang masking," Herbosa said in a press briefing in Malacañang.

"Wala pang formal order. We're still waiting for a formal order. De facto naman tayo di ba? Nagpunta ako sa mall, wala nang nagma-mask," he added.

Asked if the President was okay with lifting the public emergency status, Herbosa replied: "Yeah, I think he is."

"Really, his instruction to me is to recover from COVID and be able to get back the economy kasi we've lost a lot in the economy due to the restrictions," he added.

Herbosa also noted that during a Cabinet meeting with Marcos Tuesday morning, he reported that healthcare workers in the country already consider COVID-19 "similar to other illnesses like cough, colds, [and] influenza."

"But we still have to protect yourself. I think the public health warning is to protect yourself if you're vulnerable. And you still need to get the vaccine if you want to be specially protected," the health secretary said.

• Marcos to health chief: Craft COVID exit plan, focus on TB

Last week, Herbosa said that he would recommend to Malacañang to lift the Philippines' public health emergency status, as the World Health Organization (WHO) no longer considers the coronavirus as a global health emergency.

But while he wants the public health status lifted, Herbosa said he wanted the government's 3-step COVID-19 alert level system to remain.

"The alert level system will stay kasi it’s the system like the typhoon signal that stays. But actually hindi na siya public health emergency. Wala nang public health emergency. It’s just one of the diseases being monitored just like influenza, cough, colds, etcetera," he earlier said.

President Marcos himself had also said that there was no need to change the country's health status.

“So we don’t need to do anything. We are already on normal footing. Nauna pa tayo sa kanila. And in terms of the – also the requirement that we used to have for a valid vaccine certificate, wala matagal ng tinanggal ‘yun," Marcos told reporters last May.

• COVID no longer a global health emergency: WHO
• DOH logs 2,747 COVID-19 cases on June 26-July 2

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