‘“They get better on their own, anyway” appears to be the DOH philosophy.’
‘“They get better on their own, anyway” appears to be the DOH philosophy.’
All this time I thought the government response to COVID-19, though late and chaotic at first, had gotten better than its approach to the African Swine Fever (ASF).
To prevent ASF from spreading, the Department of Agriculture (DA) has killed practically all the local hogs, and depended heavily on imports for pork supply.
Now, I found out that the Department of Health (DOH) would rather leave to chance what happens to “recovered” COVID-19 patients instead of making sure they have a clean bill of health after being quarantined.
The DOH is doing away with the repeat RT-PCR test in releasing “recovered” COVID-19 patients from government isolation facilities including those of the local government units (LGUs) and barangays.
According to the latest DOH guidelines issued by Secretary Francisco Duque last April 5, there is no need to retest recovered COVID-19 patients after 10-21 days of isolation. This includes asymptomatic, mild and critical cases.
Those who had close contacts with patients but remained asymptomatic for at least 14 days from the date of exposure may also discontinue their quarantine without retesting.
I wish DOH would explain and clarify the rationale of the policy of forgoing the retesting of recovered patients upon their release from “treatment” at quarantine facilities.
I am not pretending to be a medical expert but I am raising this issue following reports that DOH authorities refused to conduct swab tests before sending home patients.
After being exposed to an infected co-worker, one Batasan Hills Quezon City resident who tested positive for COVID-19 was quarantined in Novaliches for 14 days and then cleared as having “recovered.”
He was sent home but this guy, a private driver, is anxious because a confirmatory repeat test would have assured him that he is well enough to go home.
He wanted to be sure that he is 100-percent COVID-free before rejoining his wife and kids, as they await getting vaccinated.
“Kung walang follow-up testing, paano ko malalaman na wala na nga akong COVID at hindi mahahawa ang asawa at mga anak namin?” he asked.
The recent DOH circular, as approved by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) however, edicts that retesting is no longer required.
But common sense would serve us right that we do repeat testing as an extra precaution, unless the DOH is doing this to keep down the numbers.
Why, hasn’t the country’s COVID tally ballooned to horrifying figures, in fact, due partly to positive retest results?
If certain local governments units (LGUs) like Bohol, can effectively require tourists a repeat swab test if visiting beyond one week, we can and should similarly do retests on admitted COVID-19 patients after their quarantine.
Our public healthcare system continues to be horribly deficient and inefficient while private medical institutions expectedly remain grossly profit-oriented, and that is why hospitals are said to be “overwhelmed” by ever-increasing Covid cases.
Whereas we were incapacitated to control and stop the mysterious COVID-19, not even having enough testing kits for VIPs and politicians in the beginning of the epidemic, the whole pandemic crisis has since become big business in the country.
Meanwhile, the greater public, especially the poorest of the poor, have suffered widespread hunger due to loss of livelihood amid the continuous lockdown.
