{"id":247602,"date":"2020-03-09T08:18:14","date_gmt":"2020-03-09T12:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=247602"},"modified":"2020-03-09T08:18:14","modified_gmt":"2020-03-09T12:18:14","slug":"duque-denies-underreporting-covid-19-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/03\/09\/duque-denies-underreporting-covid-19-cases\/","title":{"rendered":"Duque denies underreporting Covid-19 cases"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
In a Laging Handa press briefing in Malaca\u00f1ang, Duque explained that the department has been \u201cprudent\u201d in conducting tests due to the limited supply of testing kits. (PIA file photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 Health Secretary Franciso Duque III on Monday denied that the health department is underreporting the number of persons who tested positive for the new coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in the country.<\/p>\n

In a Laging Handa press briefing in Malaca\u00f1ang, Duque explained that the department has been \u201cprudent\u201d in conducting tests due to the limited supply of testing kits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to rationalize our testing,\u00a0yung mga tingin natin may sintomas at yung<\/em>\u00a0(those with symptoms and those with) history of travel, history of exposure para (so that) we will be prudent in the use of our very limited supplies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He, however, assured that the Department of Health (DOH) will be able to expand the coverage of those who will be tested once they acquire more testing kits.<\/p>\n

\u201cLater on, we will do some calibrated approach to expanding who should be prioritized but at the moment given the limited supply, we have to be very, very prudent in the way we do our tests,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, he said the World Health Organization (WHO) has been \u201cvery helpful\u201d in terms of testing kits.<\/p>\n

Right at the moment, he said the DOH\u2019s testing capacity is about 4,500 individual testing kits.<\/p>\n

Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe, WHO Representatives in the Philippines, said the WHO will again deliver about 2,000 testing kits within the week.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Senator Panfilo Lacson said the DOH could be underreporting, although unintentionally, information on the highly-contagious disease if it had insufficient number of testing kits.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt begs the question: Do we have a sufficient number of testers to cover a decent number of our population especially in the more vulnerable areas of the country? If not, the DOH may be underreporting albeit unintentionally,\u201d Lacson said.<\/p>\n

The country has now 20 confirmed cases, including 10 new cases reported by the DOH on Monday.<\/p>\n

Full disclosure<\/strong><\/p>\n

Amid criticism that DOH is underreporting the Covid-19 cases in the country, Duque assured that the department will be disclosing hospital names after coordination with hospitals to combat unverified or fake news.<\/p>\n

He also reassured the public that the country\u2019s hospitals have infection prevention and controlled practices in place.<\/p>\n

He also recommended hospitals to designate a triage area in their emergency rooms for screening suspected Covid\u201319 patients.<\/p>\n

Hospitals were directed to attend to all patients suspected to have the coronavirus and those confirmed Covid-19 with mild symptoms, he said.<\/p>\n

Only confirmed Covid-19 patients who are severe and critical will be referred to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), the San Lazaro Hospital, and Lung Center of the Philippines, he added.<\/p>\n

More testing kits<\/strong><\/p>\n

Duque said he has reached out to Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian to request more Covid-19 testing kits once they have been validated by the WHO for effectiveness.<\/p>\n

Duque made this remark after China\u2019 National Medical Products Administration approved a rapid testing kit for the Covid-19 antibody with results available in 29 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just sent a text message to my staff to call up the Chinese Ambassador so that I\u2019ll be able to personally request, on behalf of the Philippine government, as many testing kits as they can provide us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He, however, emphasized the importance of validating the effectiveness of testing kits before they are used.<\/p>\n

He said testing kits prequalified by the WHO will ensure that the test results are accurate and credible.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very important that we are sure about the results that come out because it\u2019s going to be very scary when you have false negatives. You say a person is negative,\u00a0yun pala<\/em>\u00a0(when it\u2019s actually) positive and then you let them go thinking they\u2019re okay so we have to be very, very cautious about this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Warm temperatures<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Duque rejected claims that warm temperatures will slow the Covid-19 outbreak but noted it\u2019s difficult to neutralize the virus \u201cwhen there is low humidity and low temperature.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abeyasinghe explained that there is no evidence to support how the virus will respond to changing weather.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are seeing continuing transmission in very tropical countries like Singapore, Malaysia and so the evidence we have at this point in time is not supportive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said that how long the virus survives in warmer countries with high humidity is much less than in colder, low humid circumstances.<\/p>\n

However, he noted that there are also other factors such as overcrowding which could work negatively and could contribute to increased transmission of the highly-contagious disease.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2014 Health Secretary Franciso Duque III on Monday denied that the health department is underreporting the number of persons who …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":243433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247602"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247603,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247602\/revisions\/247603"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}