The Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday issued Department Memorandum 2020-0381 or the “Interim Guidelines on the Covid-19 Disease Severity Classification and Management” to update its disease severity classification by including “moderate” to ensure alignment with international definitions.
Following the World Health Organization reclassification of severity of symptoms among Covid-19 cases, the DOH said the following classifications will be utilized in the case reporting of health facilities and disease reporting units:
● Mild disease – symptomatic Covid-19 patients with fever, cough, fatigue, anorexia, myalgia, other non-specific symptoms like nasal congestion, sore throat, nausea and vomiting, or loss of smell or taste prior to the onset of respiratory symptoms but with NO signs of pneumonia or hypoxia
● Moderate disease – child, adolescent, or adult with clinical signs of non-severe pneumonia (cough, dyspnea or respiratory rate of 21-30 breaths/minute for adults, and cough or difficulty in breathing and fast breathing or chest indrawing for children)
● Severe disease – Adolescent, or adult with clinical signs of severe pneumonia or severe acute respiratory infection; or child with clinical signs of pneumonia accompanied by either central cyanosis, severe respiratory distress, general danger signs like inability to breastfeed or drink, unconsciousness or convulsions, or fast breathing
● Critical disease – patients manifesting acute respiratory distress syndrome, sepsis or septic shock.
In addition, Covid-19 patients who did not develop any sign or symptom shall be tagged as “asymptomatic”.
“This reclassification shall streamline the triaging of patients — asymptomatic and mild Covid-19 cases will be isolated and managed in Temporary Treatment and Monitoring Facilities, while moderate, severe, and critical cases shall be admitted in hospitals,” the DOH said.
This reclassification, according to DOH, will also be reflected in relevant communication materials of DOH beginning November 12, 2020 including the daily case bulletin and other succeeding reports.
Covid cases
As of 4 p.m. of November 12, an additional 1,407 Covid-19 cases were recorded with 211 recoveries and 11 deaths, making a total of 402, 820 infections.
Of the total Covid cases, 8.1 percent (32,682) are active cases, 90.0 percent (362,417) have recovered, and 1.92 percent (7,721) have died.
Seventeen labs were not able to submit their data to the Covid-19 Data Repository System (CDRS) on November 11, 2020.