Senator Maria Imelda Josefa “Imee” Romualez Marcos on Friday, October 30, urged the government to stop resorting to lockdowns as a measure to control the spread of the COVID-19 virus, prompting them to learn to live with it instead.

Marcos, as chairwoman of the Senate Economic Affairs Committee, prodded the government to stop imposing lockdowns in the country, and instead improve testing capacity to detect cases of infection early and isolate them immediately. “Living with the virus should be our goal [rather] than achieving a zero-COVID target. Lockdowns are reactive, not proactive,” Marcos explained.

In her statement, the senator also said that the 2022 budget must seriously fund the country’s testing capacity to prevent the “blanket disruption in livelihood, income generation, and overall economic growth.”

Moreover, Senator Marcos credited the administration for reducing the pandemic’s reproduction rate since the August lockdown but also added that unless testing capacity is strengthened to protect the achievements gained, the country will be caught in a never-ending cycle of alert levels and quarantine regulations.

The country’s COVID-19 reproduction rate, which peaked at 2.04 percent in March 2020, has dropped this year from 1.32 percent in March to 0.52 percent this week.