Craft an ''exit plan'' on COVID-19 and address tuberculosis and HIV cases.

These were the marching orders given by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr to new Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa. Herbosa was appointed last Monday.

Herbosa told the ''Laging Handa'' public forum said: ''These are the marching orders of the President so we are really focused on these problems."

"He (Marcos) wants an 'exit plan' so we can already come out of this COVID-19, while continuing these necessary vaccines, particularly the bivalent vaccines," said Herbosa.

Herbosa said Marcos wants to address the increasing HIV transmission among the youth.

"He was asking why do we have many youth acquiring HIV? That is true because the World Health Organization informed us that we are one of the countries with very high rate of transmission," he noted.

Herbosa said Marcos wants ''us'' to get out of the top 10 in tuberculosis numbers so we will also focus on doing that." DMS