DOH can't say yet if increasing daily COVID-19 cases are due to eased quarantines

The Department of Health (DOH) on Monday said it cannot tell yet whether the increasing daily cases of COVID-19 were caused by the eased community quarantine restrictions.

“Hindi pa ho natin 'yan masasabi sa ngayon,” Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in an interview on GMA Network’s Unang Hirit.

“Ang masasabi natin, itong pagtaas ng mga kaso, katulad ng sinasabi namin noong mga nakaraang araw, bunsod ito ng pagva-validate natin ng mga kaso at mas nakakapagkumpleto tayo ng datos,” she added.

According to Vergeire, the department is still facing a backlog of nearly 2,000 cases due to recurring problems with the exhaustion system of one of their laboratories, which creates safe negative pressure.

“Kaya po medyo bumagal ang kanilang paggawa ng test,” she said.

Aside from this, the delays in validation of reports also contributed to the backlog in the process, Vergeire said.

She said the Epidemiology Bureau has to ensure that there is no discrepancy in the data.

“Ang isang case investigation form, dumadaan po ‘yan sa masusing pag-aaral ng ating Epidemiology Bureau para masigurado natin na ang kaso na ‘yun ay talagang siya ‘yung kaso na ‘yun, wala ho tayong duplication with our data, tama po ‘yung mga nilagay na mga detalye,” she said.

According to Vergeire, the buildup of delays is already easing with the submission of correct information from laboratories.

Metro Manila, which has the most number of cases, shifted from enhanced community quarantine to a modified version from May 16 to 31, then to general community quarantine from June 1 to June 15.

As of Sunday, there were 21,895 confirmed cases of COVID-19 recorded in the country. Of this number, total recoveries were 4,530 while the death toll was at 1,003. —Joviland Rita/KG, GMA News