Multimedia

The Covid-19 pandemic is here to stay unless scientists across the globe quickly discover a vaccine. In the meantime, we must fight the virus with surgical precision and at the same time restore as many jobs as possible to get the economy going.

The second half of the year just commenced. We have finally closed the door on an awful first half that saw the coronavirus pandemic wreak havoc on our communities and our economy. There seems to be no end in sight. Last week, the total number of virus infections reached 10 million. And while more than half have recovered, more than 500,000 have died from the Covid-19 disease.

The recent spike in the number of coronavirus cases in the Philippines should prompt our health authorities to reassess their strategy in battling the pandemic. Learning from the experiences of other countries like China, for one, will intelligently guide us in significantly containing the virus outbreak and reopening the economy at the same time, with lesser risks.