The Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday said to expect more COVID-19 cases reported in the coming days as laboratories play catch-up because of the DOH’s stricter requirements in test result submissions.
“We may have an irregularly high number of cases in the coming days as cases from these laboratories get reported,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said during a virtual briefing.
She also explained the agency’s stricter submission requirements for laboratories.
“In the past months, we noted issues raised by the local governments that they cannot initiate contact-tracing because the COVID-19 database does not have the complete information, specifically addresses and contact details of patients,” she said.
Because of this, starting Sept. 1, the DOH stopped accepting test results that did not include the complete address and phone number of the patient.
She said this meant that there are confirmed cases per day that have not been reported yet officially, and will come out only this week. —
3,176 new cases reported
The Philippines reported 3,176 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of infections to 245,143 since the pandemic began, the DOH said on Wednesday.
The DOH also reported 70 new fatalities, bringing the death toll to 3,986.
There were 376 new recoveries, bringing the total number of patients who recovered from the disease to 185,543.
Cemeteries may be closed
The government is considering closing all cemeteries on All Souls’ Day in a bid to prevent crowding as the COVID-19 pandemic persists.
Chief implementer of the country’s COVID-19 response Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said Wednesday he would make this recommendation because uncontrolled crowding would be a big problem.
Earlier, Manila Mayor Isko Moreno announced the closure of cemeteries in his city from Oct. 31 to Nov. 3 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Decline in cases seen
The University of the Philippines’ OCTA Research Team has observed a three-week “significant” decline in the average daily number of coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19) cases in Quezon City.
In a statement, the city government cited the report of the group of independent researchers that from 540 on Aug. 10 to Aug. 16, the average number of daily cases dropped to 456 from Aug. 17 to Aug. 23.
“It further dropped to 372 from Aug. 24 to 30 and to 205 from Aug. 1 to Sept. 6, based on information used by OCTA from Department of Health (DOH) data, which includes verified and non-verified data of the City Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance Unit (CESU),” the statement read.
To identify the flattening of the curve, the group said it was crucial to tally a two-week steady decline in the average number of daily cases.
Quezon City’s Reproduction number also dropped for five straight weeks, from 1.47 (July 27 to Aug. 2) to 0.92 on Aug. 31 to Sept. 6, indicating a decline in the movement of the virus, the city government said, also citing the group’s report. — Rio N. Araja
The Department of Health (DOH) said on Wednesday it will be up to the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on COVID-19 to decide on whether deployment ban exemptions will be given to health workers with contracts signed as of Aug. 31.
“That has been discussed in the IATF the other day. There was this discussion. I think the IATF will be coming out with a decision through a resolution.,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said during a virtual briefing.
Vergeire was referring to the call of health workers to exempt those who already have signed contracts as of Aug. 31.
She said allowing health workers to work abroad would benefit the economy, and added that the deployment ban was only temporary. —
1,500 Filipinos join clinical trials in UAE
SOME 1,500 Filipinos in the United Arab Emirates are part of the 30,000 volunteers who are taking part in the Phase 3 clinical trial of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Sinopharm, Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian said.
In an interview on the Daily Tribune’ Show Straight Talk, Huang said the trial, which began June 23, was the world’s first Phase 3 clinical trial for a COVID-19 vaccine.