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The Philippines will have its 17th president this week when President Rodrigo Duterte ends his term on Friday. President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will take over the reins of power on the same day, and I believe the event will be one of the smoothest transitions in our history.

It has been a long time since I have written about Covid-19 in this space. And for good reason. Since the Omicron-driven surge last January, the number of cases has been hovering in the low hundreds and severe cases and deaths have been very low. On top of these, hospital utilization has been very minimal. Is this the endemic phase of the coronavirus? Are we in the new normal where we all learn to live with the virus that has slowly morphed into becoming similar to the flu?

The slight uptick in daily Covid-19 cases last week is a reminder that the pandemic is still much around despite the small victories we achieved on the economic and health fronts. President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. himself has acknowledged after winning the May 9 elections that the pandemic remains a problem that his administration must deal with.