Solon warns of underreported COVID-19 cases as Duque admits to testing ‘policy gap’

A lawmaker on Tuesday raised the concern about the underreporting of COVID-19 cases in the country as Health Secretary Francisco Duque admitted that there was a “policy gap” in the use of antigen test kits in detecting COVID-19 positive patients.

In a House Committee on Health meeting on the government’s COVID-19 response, Marikina 2nd District Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo pointed out that there are patients detected with COVID-19 using antigen tests, but the Department of Health (DOH) is only considering COVID-19 confirmed cases based on specimens tested with reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests.

The RT-PCR is the gold standard for COVID-19 testing.

“That is my worry. It would seem like there is a growing number of COVID-positives who are tested not on the basis of RT-PCR but rather on the basis of antigen, in which case, hindi po sila nasasama sa reporting ng confirmed cases. Is this something you are aware of?” Quimbo asked the DOH.

In response, Duque admitted that it is “a gap that they recognize” and they will conduct a policy review if patients who tested positive for antigen test will be counted as confirmed COVID-19 cases.

“This is something that is going to be addressed by the concerned office and the RITM which is our technical arm in terms of testing, we will get their recommendation with regard to your very well-taken point. The thing is the immediate response is really isolate and quarantine. It doesn’t stop with testing,” Duque said.

Quimbo then asked Duque if his admission is tantamount to admitting that the COVID-19 cases in the country are underreported.

“Isn’t that a big concern? So considering that we already have a new surge of cases, but because you have agreed that there is a possibility that this is a big gap here, where many of those that are positives are not PCR-positives so. What steps are u taking?” Quimbo asked.

She also pointed out that the COVID-19 positivity rate was 18 percent, which may also indicate under-testing.

Health Undersecretary Ma. Rosario Vergeire explained that patients who tested positive using the antigen kits are still being recorded by DOH not as confirmed cases but as suspected and probable COVID-19 patients.

“We still count them, but they are part of that classification na suspect and probable sila. They are not confirmed COVID-19 cases,” she said.

“They are not reported doon sa case bulletin but we have the numbers for that and we also manage them,” she added.

Vergeire also confirmed that there are local governments that use antigen test kits to confirm cases.

Based on the DOH guidelines, antigen test kits are only used as a confirmatory tool for COVID-19 if and when there are outbreaks because of the prevalence in cases in an area, Vergeire said.

Last year, the Philippine government allowed the use of antigen tests to detect COVID-19 rapidly.

On Tuesday, Testing czar Vince Dizon said the government is planning to ramp up COVID-19 tests to 80,000 to 90,000 per day in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.

To achieve this, the government will be using 30,000 antigen test kits along with the RT-PCR tests.

Currently, around 51,000 RT-PCR tests are being conducted every day, according to Dizon during a Palace briefing Tuesday.

Dizon explained that the use of antigen test kits will help the government to quickly identify those infected with the virus as it can yield results in just a few minutes.

The government will only use three brands of antigen tests approved by the World Health Organization and the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).

These are the Abbott’s Panbio COVID-19 Ag rapid test kit, SD Biosensor test kit, and Lansion test kit.

According to the Department of Health’s COVID-19 tracker, there are over 10 million cumulative samples tested as of March 28.

Over 9.4 million individuals were tested with an 8.5% cumulative positivity rate.

The DOH said 207 testing labs were operating all over the country. — DVM, GMA News