While both the health and economic crisis wrought by  the still ravaging COVID-19 pandemic must be both effectively addressed, the relief and recovery of the people's health must be prioritized.

Lives lost are forfeited forever but businesses lost can be redeemed.

The plea of the medical experts and healthcare frontliners for more stringent health protocols in critical areas must be heeded by the Duterte administration, while the call for "business as usual" must temporarily be put on hold or selectively implemented.

We must learn from the bitter lesson experienced by other countries like Japan which prematurely reopened economic, leisure and domestic travel activities only to be besieged later by a resurgence of the viral contagion.

EDCEL C. LAGMAN