A TOTAL of 40,397 recoveries were reported by the Department of Health (DOH) following the implementation of the “time-based recovery strategy” dubbed “Oplan Recovery,” bringing the total recoveries to 112,586 while the confirmed Covid-19 in the country rose to 161,253 on Sunday.
The time-based and symptom-based recovery strategies are part of the DOH’s Oplan Recovery, an initiative that the DOH activated to monitor the status of confirmed Covid-19 deaths and recoveries.
“Ang mga recoveries ay kritikal na sukatan upang ating masuri at mabalanse kung maayos ba ang mga interventions na ating ginagawa [These recoveries are critical indicators to determine and balance if our interventions are on track],” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in an online press briefing as she
stressed the importance of monitoring the number of recoveries in the country.
Under Oplan Recovery, a patient is tagged as recovered when certain conditions are met even without repeat RT-PCR testing and is recommended by the Philippine College of Physicians, and the Philippine Society of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.
It is characterized by enhanced data collection, validation and reconciliation efforts between the DOH Central and Regional Offices, and the Local Government Units.
Since its implementation, Oplan Recovery has reported 4,000 time-based recoveries as of July 13 and over 37,000 time-based recoveries on July 30. The DOH also announced that starting today, time-based recoveries will be published every Sunday.
During the online briefing, Vergeire the discussed the process of tagging time-based recoveries for mild and asymptomatic confirmed cases, noting how it does not apply to severe and critical cases, nor to immunocompromised patients.
Moreover, she reminded the public that due to the large-scale community transmission being experienced in the country, it is important to immediately self-isolate even before getting tested when experiencing flu-like symptoms.
Vergeire also highlighted the importance of healthy coping mechanisms while in isolation, and emphasized that there is no need to get tested after observing the 14-day isolation period and after clinical assessment by a physician.
She also reminded the public to remain vigilant and regularly follow the minimum health standards. The BIDA Solusyon campaign was launched by the Department to increase awareness on the minimum public health standards. BIDA stands for:
B – Bawal walang mask;
I – I-sanitize ang mga kamay, iwas hawak sa mga bagay;
D – Dumistansya ng isang metro; and
A – Alamin ang totoong impormasyon.
“Sa mga simple ngunit epektibong mga aksyon na kayang gawin ninuman, matutulungan natin ang ating mga healthcare workers na araw-araw nakikibaka sa Covid-19 [Through these simple yet effective actions that can be done by anyone, we can help our healthcare workers fighting Covid-19 everyday],” Vergerie stressed.
Covid cases
As of 4 p.m. of August 16, the DOH logged a total of 3,420 confirmed cases based on the total tests done by 99 out of 105 current operational labs.
There were 65 deaths reported. The death toll stood at 2,665.
Of the 3,420 reported cases today, 2,745 (80 percent) occurred within the recent 14 days (August 3-16, 2020).
The top regions with cases in the recent two weeks were National Capital Region (NCR) with 1,594 or 58 percent, Region 4A (619 or 23 percent) and Region 7 (86 or 3 percent).
Of the 65 deaths, 29 (45 percent) happened in August; 29 (45 percent) in July and 7 (11 percent) in June. Deaths were from NCR (46 or 71 percent) Region 7 (13 or 20 percent) Region 4A (3 or 5 percent) Region 3 (1 or 2 percent) Region 5 (1 or 2 percent) and Region 11 (1 or 2 percent).
Of the 40,397 total new recoveries, 914 were based on what was reported while 39,483 were time-based recoveries.
There were 85 duplicates that were removed from the total case count. Of these, five recovered cases have been removed. Moreover, there were 15 cases previously reported as recovered but after final validation, they yturned out to be 12 deaths and three active cases.
“These numbers undergo constant cleaning and validation,” the DOH said.