COVID-19 UPDATE: 11,876 cases, 790 deaths,
2,337 recovered patients
THE Department of Health on Thursday said the country is getting better at managing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said this is shown by the continued rise in the number of patients recovering from the disease, which she said can be attributed to a much improved capability of medical professionals in managing COVID-19 patients.
“We are able to do better and more appropriate methods in the management of the cases, simply because we have more knowledge of the disease,” she said.
“With the evolution of all this in science, our doctors already know how to better manage our patients. Our doctors are better acquainted with this virus and we know now what to do and how to manage it,” she added.
The disease first emerged late last year in China.
Vergeire’s statement comes after the DOH said a new record high was set on Wednesday with 145 recoveries. It broke the record of 101 recoveries, then 112, and then 116 set last week.
On Thursday, there were 86 recoveries, bringing the total to 2,337.
The number of COVID-19 cases also rose to 11,976 with the addition of 258 infections, while the death toll rose to 790 with 18 new fatalities.
From China, the disease is now in 215 countries and territories. It has infected 4,179,479 persons including 287,525 deaths who have died, data from the World Health Organization as of May 13 showed.
Among Filipinos abroad, 12 new infections and 17 recoveries were reported by the Department of Foreign Affairs on Thursday. No new fatality was reported among the Filipinos in 46 other countries.
The total now is 2,322 for COVID cases, 774 recoveries, and 269 death.
TESTS
The deputy implementer of the National Task Force on the COVID-19 on Thursday said government targets to complete the processing, and eventually eliminate the backlog, of 7,000 coronavirus tests in the next two weeks.
Vivencio Dizon, also president of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority, told a briefing in Malacañang that the government has talked with private laboratories nationwide and they agreed to assist government facilities in completing the processing.
He said the backlog is due to insufficient or outdated processing machines in some facilities. To address the problem, the government is equipping its laboratories with “automated machines,” some of which were donated by the private sector like the San Miguel Corporation to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).
The automated machines are expected to double the RITM’s laboratory’s capacity by 80 percent, Dizon said.
Dizon said the country’s testing capacity has improved by 74 percent or 14,500 tests a day, from 5,000 tests per day as of May 2 and 8,700 a day as of May 10.
He said the goal of government is to increase the country’s testing capacity to 30,000 a day by the end of the month to make it at par with countries like South Korea and Singapore in Asia and the countries in Europe.
To reach this goal, the government continues to accredit testing facilities and has so far already accredited 30 testing laboratories nationwide. He said the goal of government is to have 66 laboratories by the end of the month.
Dizon said the number of mega swabbing centers as well as quarantine and isolation centers are also continuously being increased.
TEST KITS, PPE
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases has authorized local government units to buy antibody test kits approved by the Food and Drug Administration to boost the government’s efforts against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Carlito Galvez Jr., chief Implementer of the National Action Plan on COVID-19, said the government is spending P20 billion for the purchase of 11 million sets of personal protective equipment (PPE), contrary to reports that only three million are being be bought.
Galvez said the three million is only the first tranche of the 11 million PPE sets.
“The other remaining PPE to be purchased under the P20-billion budget is part of the government’s effort to stockpile PPE and other essential medical supplies and equipment until 2021. The price of a complete PPE set is around P1,818,” he said.
He added that PPE sets are of “Level 4 quality” and include a medical-grade PPE suit, military-grade goggles, a face mask, and shoe and head covers which are designed to provide full protection to the medical frontliners. He said these are the same suits the government has given to frontliners at the Philippine General Hospital. — With Jocelyn Montemayor
