DOH to use new way of reporting COVID-19 cases —Vergeire

The Department of Health said Saturday it is developing a new format of reporting new COVID-19 infections to the public as it plans to trash the breaking down of cases into “fresh” and “late.”

“Kami po ay nakapag-develop na ng bagong format on how we can report to the public,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in an interview on Dobol B sa News TV.

“Maaring sa isang linggo ay mailabas natin ‘yan kung saan hindi na namin ilalabas ang late at fresh cases. Maglalabas na lang tayo ng additional cases per a day,” Vergeire said.

Late in May, the DOH changed its reporting method of the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases to “fresh” and “late,” a day after it reported the then single-day highest jump.

Fresh cases or those whose test results were released to the patient within three days from reporting time, and late cases or results released four days ago or more.

Vergeire earlier explained that the change in reporting of cases was made to avoid stoking fear when the DOH reports a high number of new cases.

As the Health department plans to discard this method, the DOH official said the agency will present cases in a graph “kung saan makikita roon ang mga nangyari for the past three days.”

“Para po unti-unti makapag-transition na tayo na fresh na lang ang nire-report natin.”

Vergeire appealed for the public’s understanding on the DOH’s changing of reporting COVID-19 cases.

“Unang una kailangan maintindihan ng mga tao that the situation is evolving. Nag-umpisa tayo na wala tayong kaalam alam sa virus na ito at nakakakalap na tayo ng maraming ebidensya na para ating ma-improve ang ating sistema,” she sad.

“Hindi po perpekto ang sistema ng ating kagawaran ng kalusugan nag umpisa tayo sa mano mano. Ngayon, automated system hindi rin perpekto dahil maraming operational bugs na kailangan i-trouble shoot sa day-to-day operations,” she added.

The Health official said the agency is continuously improving its system to get the actual and real-time data. —LBG, GMA News