Coronavirus patients who have recovered yet experience remaining symptoms are urged to report them as they might be experiencing "long COVID," infectious disease expert Dr. Eric Tayag said Sunday.
"We need to believe this. I hope home care can also be for those with long COVID, not just those who are currently suffering from the illness because they also face challenges,” Tayag told ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo.
He said these patients suffer from at least one symptom for 12 weeks or more.
Studies show long COVID is more prevalent among women and patients from the working class.
COVID-19 task force to meet Tuesday
The government task force on the COVID-19 response will meet on Tuesday to discuss the recommendations on the next quarantine classifications for the National Capital Region and four neighboring provinces, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said Sunday.
The resolutions from the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases will be sent to President Rodrigo Duterte for his final decision.
"In our next meeting, we will tackle the new classifications of quarantine in NCR plus by Tuesday. We will also study the new lockdown classifications for areas such as in Abra and Quirino,” Año told "Dobol B TV."
The NCR Plus area – composed of Metro Manila, Bulacan, Rizal, Cavite and Laguna – has been placed under modified enhanced community quarantine until the end of April.
Virus cases nearing million mark
The total Philippine COVID-19 cases are closely approaching the one million mark as the country logged on Sunday 8,162 new cases, bringing the total to 997,523, the Department of Health reported.
Two laboratories were not operational on April 23, 2021 while eight labs were not able to submit their data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System on time, the department said.
It reported active cases at 77,075, which is 7.7 percent of the total number of cases.
Of the active cases, 95.5 percent were mild, 1.5 percent were asymptomatic, 1 percent were critical, 1.2 percent were severe, and 0.84 percent were moderate.
A total of 20,509 patients recently recovered, bringing the total recoveries to 903,665, which is 90.6 percent of the total.
Sputnik vaccines to be distributed
The Sputnik V vaccines will only be distributed to local governments with facilities that will meet the required storage requirements for the doses, the Department of Health said on Saturday.
"The main difference would be the storage. The Gamaleya or Sputnik V needs to be stored in a dark place and a temperature not exceeding -18 degrees," department spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire said in Filipino at the Laging Handa public briefing.
Sinovac or AstraZeneca vaccines meanwhile could be stored in regular storage facilities at two to eight degrees.
"This type of storage is not found in all places in the Philippines. When Sputnik V arrives, there are assigned local governments that will receive them because they have the facilities to store these vaccines,” Vergeire said.