Ex-DOH chief Dayrit shares tips on how to improve gov't response to COVID-19 pandemic

Former Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit on Wednesday gave his two cents on why the number of COVID-19 cases in the country continues to increase despite intensified government efforts.

Dayrit, who headed the Department of Health (DOH) during the 2002 SARS outbreak, cited the data from European Centre for Disease Control (CDC) that showed the Philippines’ COVID-19 positivity rate reaching 5 to 10% by August from 2 to 3% positivity rate during the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).

"Why is this (COVID-19 cases) increasing? It is a simple story: Snakes and ladders," Dayrit said during a forum.

He explained: "To be able to control the epidemic, we have to be able to build capacity. We have been able to build our laboratory capacity from one lab to 99 labs, but our testing capacity has not grown, our isolation capacity has not grown in proportion to the growth of laboratory capacity.

"Supply chain capacity [of laboratories] has kept up to a certain extent, but contact tracing capacity has not grown. If we do not have enough contact tracers, the head of the snake brings you down. You will not be able to isolate, and that is what happened to us: Snakes and Ladders phenomenon. We have to do well in every aspect of the response."

Dayrit also said that the country’s COVID-19 data is unreliable largely due to late reporting of cases from local government units and laboratories, resulting in delayed responses.

"The data, after being analyzed and cleaned up... it takes 14 days to record it. That is what we have to do better. We should not wait for that data to be reported to the national government," he said.

"The local government units should already act on  the data that they have in order to the necessary contact tracing and isolation in their communities," Dayrit added.

As of August 4, the Philippines has recorded 112,593 COVID-19 cases. Of this number, 66,049 have recovered while 2,115 have died. Over 6,000 new COVID-19 cases have also been recorded on August 4 alone.

There are 44,429 active COVID-19 cases in the country as of this posting.

Health Undersecretary Rosario Vergeire said the government is eyeing to subject all those with COVID-19 symptoms to Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) or swab test by August 18 or the end of the modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) in the National Capital Region and for other nearby areas which started August 4.

The MECQ protocol was imposed on Metro Manila, Calabarzon region and Bulacan province as COVID-19 cases breached the 100,000 mark last week. —KBK, GMA News