HEALTH Secretary Francisco T. Duque III said on Sunday it is too early to tell whether the spread of Covid-19 is slowing down.
“Too premature to say there is flattening of the curve,” said Duque in a text message to BusinessMirror when asked.
Duque also said the Department of Health (DOH) has already tested over 19,000 people for Covid-19 nationwide.
“Nineteen thousand different individuals (were already tested). Of these tested, a little over 3,000 are positive,” Duque said.
Data from DOH on Sunday showed that 152 new cases (PH3095-PH3246) were recorded, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 3,246.
DOH also reported seven additional recoveries, which brings the total number of recoveries to 64.
Eight new deaths were also reported, raising the total number of fatalities to 152.
QC lists 8 recoveries
Eight Covid-19 patients confined in two Quezon City-run facilities have fully recovered from the virus, the local government announced on Sunday.
Four of the recovered patients were from the HOPE-1 facility headed by Dr. Vince Mendoza, M.D.
Four recoveries were also recorded at the Quezon City General Hospital (QCGH), led by director Dr. Josephine Sabando.
According to Sabando, three of the four recovered patients at QCGH were three elderly persons with co-morbid disease.
“The discharged patients are all clinically improved, obtaining at least once negative Covid-19 result,” said Mendoza.
“The number is still considerable — worthy of quiet applause to motivate our workforce. This is our start. This is our victory,” he added.
Mendoza said the recovered patients still need to go through a 14-day home quarantine and have been advised to have a follow-up examination after then.
Meanwhile, he reminded the public to practice proper hand hygiene, social distancing, and stay at home to prevent the spread of the deadly respiratory virus.
“The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. There will be setbacks and false starts but we as a people will get there,” he said.
The city government said it launched efforts to combat Covid-19, including the establishment of Hope I and II to serve as quarantine facility for persons under investigation (PUI) and persons under monitoring (PUM).
Hope I caring facility is a 49-room alternative medical facility while Hope II community caring facility is a 300-plus bed facility housed inside the Quezon City University (QCU).
One hundred fifty beds in QCU were put up through a partnership between the local government and St. Theresa’s College Quezon City Batch 85, GKonomics International Inc. and Rotary International District 3780, through its governor Rep. Bernadette Herrera.
Hope II also has a separate 15-bed facility for Covid-19 positive patients donated by an anonymous donor.
It is also set to open Hope 3, an 80-bedroom hotel to serve as quarantine facility for PUIs and PUMs.
Hope 4, a 15-bed facility inside QCGH, is a donation from Poveda Class 2010 in partnership with architect William Ty and WTA Architecture and Design. It will take care of senior PUIs with mild symptoms.
Meanwhile, the DOH said that as of Saturday,
19,000 plus “unique individuals” have been tested and that 3,749 persons turned positive.
However, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire clarified that the number of positive results does not match with the number of positive cases reported on Saturday (3,094) as there are “repeated” tests conducted on admitted patients for monitoring.
Likewise, she said 15,398 individuals were found negative while 49 people have “equivocal” results. The equivocal result can be positive or negative.
“So it needs to be repeated to determine if the patient is really positive or negative,” Vergeire said.
Vergeire also announced that by April 14, the DOH will be capable of conducting 3,000 tests per day as a result of its recently expanded testing protocol.
She said the DOH aims to further increase the capacity to between 8,000 and 10,000 tests by the end of April.
“The mass testing that we’re planning is targeted. We need to prioritize the vulnerable members of the population such as pregnant women, those who are immunocompromised, and our frontline health workers who have the highest exposure to the virus,” Vergeire said.
The recent addition of laboratories to conduct tests alongside the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) drives the increase in the country’s daily testing capacity from 300 back in January to between 900 and 1,200 currently.
The DOH said the testing kits devised by the University of the Philippines-National Institute of Health have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and will be ready for rollout, further increasing the country’s capacity to undertake targeted testing.
Image credits: AP Photo/Aaron Favila