DOH adopts new format of daily Covid-19 situationer

Based on DOH’s definition, “late cases” are positive cases belatedly submitted and were validated only recently while “fresh cases” are test results that came in less than three days and were readily validated by the department’s Epidemiology Bureau. (File Photo by Martin Sanchez/Unsplash)

MANILA – The Department of Health (DOH) is modifying the format of its daily bulletin for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) to distinguish the backlogs or “late cases” from “fresh cases”.

Based on DOH’s definition, “late cases” are positive cases belatedly submitted and were validated only recently while “fresh cases” are test results that came in less than three days and were readily validated by the department’s Epidemiology Bureau.

In a virtual briefing on Friday, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire cited as an example the spike of 539 Covid-19 cases reported on May 28, Philippines’ highest single-daily increase since the outbreak.

Of the 539, she said only 109 are “fresh cases” while the balance of over 400 is “late cases” whose results came out last week.

“Ang balanse na humigit kumulang na 400 ay mga late cases o mga kaso na ang resulta ay lumabas pa noong nakaraang linggo pero dahil kahapon lang po na-submit ang mga laboratory results nila, kahapon lang din po na-validate ng Epidemiology Bureau ng DOH (The balance of over 400 are late cases whose results already came out last week but were only submitted yesterday (May 28) which is why the Epidemiology Bureau of DOH was only able to validate it yesterday),” she said.

Vergeire noted that the validation process is integral to avoid “double counting” and to ensure that the case reported is a “unique individual”.

She also clarified that the 17 new deaths reported on Thursday do not mean the patients expired on the same day.

“Gaya din sa mga kaso, ang aming reporting ay nakasalalay kung gaano kaaga isa-submit ng ospital or local government unit ang data sa DOH. Within the day pagdating ng datos sa atin agad namin itong bina-validate (Like in the confirmed cases, our report is based on how early a hospital or the LGU will submit the data to DOH. Within the day of its submission, we conduct validation),” she said.

GCQ decision

Vergeire said that the decision to place an area under general community quarantine (GCQ) is based on a number of factors, including the case doubling time and critical care utilization rate.

“Kung pababa ang number of deaths, mas mahaba ang case doubling time, at mababa ang ating critical care utilization rate mas gumaganda po ang sitwasyon ng ating bansa,” she said.

(If the number of deaths is on the decline, the case doubling time is longer, and our critical care utilization rate is lower, the situation of our country is improving.)

The case doubling time is the period it takes for cases to rise two-fold, while the critical care utilization rate reflects the percentage of healthcare facilities and equipment currently in use.

As of May 28, the Philippines has 13,627 total bed capacity for Covid-19 patients, with 1,883 ward beds, 6,059 isolation beds, 871 ICU beds still available.

On the other hand, 365 mechanical ventilators are in use with 1,653 available.