DOH should maintain daily COVID-19 case bulletin — Pacquiao

Presidential candidate and Senator Manny Pacquiao on Wednesday insisted that the Department of Health (DOH) should issue its COVID-19 case bulletins daily and not weekly.

"Unang una ano ang dahilan bakit weekly [silang] magbibigay ng information? Bakit, tinatamad na?" Pacquiao said at a media briefing in Lingayen, Pangasinan.

(First of all why would they give the information weekly? Are they being lazy?)

"Pangalawa, kailangan talaga every day nagbibigay sila ng update sa taong bayan kung ilan 'yung may COVID positive, sino ang nag-positive at sino ang gumaling. Kailangan updated ang mga tao dahil karapatan ng mga tao na malaman ang pangyayari sa ating bansa araw-araw," he said.

(Secondly, the DOH really needs to give an update to the public everyday on how many are COVID positive, who tested positive and who recovered. People need to be updated because they have the right to know what is happening in our country everyday.)

Pacquiao added the daily update on COVID cases will help the public to take caution and to observe the COVID-19 protocols, especially the wearing of face masks.

GMA News Online has reached out to Health Secretary Francisco Duque III for his comment but has yet to reply as of posting time.

But the DOH earlier said it will “permanently” shift from issuing daily COVID-19 case bulletin to a weekly basis, focusing on active severe and critical infections and the intensive care unit (ICU) utilization starting March 7.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire explained that the purpose for these changes is to make the public look beyond the number of infections, and instead focus on the symptoms and healthcare utilization in the country.

“Gusto ho nating tanggalin ‘yung mindset ng ating kababayan na numero ang tinitignan natin (we want to remove the people’s mindset of just looking at the numbers). We have seen in this Omicron situation that the situation or the characteristic of the virus has become milder compared to the Delta variant,” Vergeire said.

“Ngayon, kaya po natin nililipat kasi mas kritikal po at should be the consequences that the population cares about itong severe, critical, at saka mga namamatay, at kung mao-overwhelm ang ating healthcare system,” she added.

(We are shifting now because it is more critical and the consequences that the population should care about is if the infection is severe, critical, and death toll, and if our healthcare system is overwhelmed.) — RSJ, GMA News