DOH creates new reporting process for COVID-19 test labs amid late submissions

The Department of Health (DOH) has introduced a new procedure in reporting COVID-19 cases for testing laboratories to address their failure to submit the list of cases on time.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said laboratories are struggling because their personnel who are processing tests are also the ones encoding the results.

According to her, the deadline for the daily submission of COVID-19 cases is 6 p.m. “Marami nakakapag-submit din naman, pero beyond 6 p.m. pa rin.”

To address this, Vergeire said they hired encoders for big laboratories and instructed them to use the COVID-19 data repository system (CDRS).

“Meron kasi silang Excel file, lahat sila. So, i-aapprove lang nila ‘yung Excel file dito sa CDRS na system. Itong CDRS system, naka-link na siya sa COVID KAYA,” she said.

COVID KAYA is an application that automates data collection system used by frontliners in submitting COVID-19 case reports.

Through this, she said laboratories do not need to encode the data anymore and just have to upload their Excel files to CDRS.

“Sa tingin namin, it would be better for them. Hindi na kailangan mag-encode. I-upload lang nila ‘yung Excel file nila. Mas mabilis for them,” she said.

According to Vergeire, they will monitor for one week if the new procedure will help laboratories to submit COVID-19 case reports on time.

“It's really a challenge for DOH,” Vergeire said.

Earlier, the DOH checked on some COVID-19 testing laboratories after being unable to submit any reports on cases for several days. — RSJ, GMA News