About 40 to 80 percent of the case investigation forms on COVID-19 patients are incomplete, causing the delay in the government’s contact-tracing efforts, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said on Monday.
She made the statement in response to Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte’s call on the Health department to help them trace the location of 8,000 COVID-19 patients in Quezon City based on the department’s records, which did not state where these patients were residing.
“Most of the field reporting units, iyong hospitals, LGUs and laboratories, iyong case investigation form [on COVID-19 patients], kulang ng address or contact details. 80 percent do not have contact details while 40 percent do not have the name of the barangay,” Vergeire told ANC.
“That is why we are calling on our local government units and other reporting units to get complete information so we can immediately initiate the contact tracing that has to be done,” Vergeire said.
Backlog cleared
The Health department on Monday said it had cleared its backlog in the validation of its of COVID-19 cases.
"We do not have any validation backlog anymore because within 24 hours of the data being submitted to us, we immediately validate and we are able to bring it out and report it at once the following day," Vergeire told ANC.
The department’s validation of data from testing laboratories, hospitals and local governments led to the removal of more than 4,000 duplicate cases from its tally of infections, Vergeire said.
More health workers infected
The Health department on Sunday reported that 493 more health workers contracted COVID-19 over the past week, raising the total to 6,499 as of Aug. 15.
In its daily COVID-19 report, the department said the total recoveries among health workers climbed to 5,759 after 693 more recovered from the respiratory disease.
The death toll remained at 39. The other 701 medical workers are active cases undergoing treatment or quarantine.
The five medical professions with the highest number of COVID-19 cases are nurses with 2,269 infections, doctors with 1,368, nursing assistants with 454, medical technologists with 282, and midwives with 140 cases.
More health workers needed
The government is in need of 3,000 more health-care workers across different professions amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Vergeire said on Monday.
She made the statement after Health Secretary Francisco Duque III appealed to Filipino health care workers—including those banned by the government to work abroad as health care workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic—to apply under the government’s emergency hiring program.
Only 25 have applied so far.
“We need 10,468 health workers across the different professions, and we are still short of 3,000 health care workers,” Vergeire told ANC.\
Department to buy PPEs locally
The Health department plans to procure personal protective equipment or PPEs from local manufacturers, Vergeire said on Monday.
She made the statement in response to the lament of the Confederation of Philippine Manufacturers of PPE that the government was giving priority to buying PPEs from abroad.
The government had asked manufacturers across industries in March to repurpose their resources to make medical grade PPEs amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
New test for COVID-19
The Health department said Monday it was studying a test for COVID-19 that examines saliva instead of nasal and blood samples.
In June, Japan approved the use of a polymerase chain reaction coronavirus test using saliva, which is said to be safer and easier compared to the dominant method that collects mucus from the back of the nose.
“It is still being studied if it’s going to be feasible and acceptable here in our country,” Vergeire said.