AN expert on infectious diseases yesterday debunked the claim of the Department of Health that better case management is the reason for the decreasing number of deaths among patients with the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
“What we can see, based on the recent trend in hospital admissions, there are fewer getting admitted that are elderly and with severe infections. They are getting fewer now…
So, if the 60 years old and above population are not being admitted, then there will be less of them dying,” said Dr. Rontgene Solante, a former president of the Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (PSMID) and current chief of San Lazaro Hospital’s adult infectious diseases department.
The elderly or senior citizens are considered as among the most vulnerable o COVID-19.
“We have to correct that. Just because our deaths are decreasing, it does not mean that case management is improving,” he said in an online media conference.
The DOH’s latest case bulletin showed 974 COVID-19 deaths in the country, with the addition of eight fatalities yesterday.
There were 751 new infections, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases to 19,748.
Of the newly-reported cases, 221 are considered as “fresh cases” and 530 are identified “late cases.”
“Fresh cases” are defined as test results released to patient within last 3 days.
“Late cases” are test results released to patient after more than 4 days.
The DOH also reported 90 new cases of recoveries among COVID-19 patients, or a total of 4,153 patients,
Solante said fewer elderly persons who got infected “likely due to social distancing and community quarantine. So they were unable to go out.”
On Tuesday, the DOH reported that the COVID-19 mortality rate in the Philippines continues to be on a downward trend. This after the average of 25.3 deaths per day in April went down to 1.6 deaths per day in May.
And according to Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, the steady decrease in the number of recorded deaths per day is an indicator that the country’s health system is successfully coping with the pandemic.
“This decline shows that different hospitals and facilities are now able to manage cases more effectively, thereby preventing more patients from progressing to severe disease and expiring,” said Vergeire in a virtual press briefing.
This better management, Vergeire added, can also be attributed to the DOH’s continued support and provision of equipment to the different hospitals and health facilities.
NEW PHILHEALT RATES
The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) announced the new rate of its benefit package for COVID-19 testing.
Under the new package rate, the amount will be P3,409 if all services for testing are procured and provided by the testing laboratory, P2,077 if the test kits are donated to the testing laboratory, and P901 if the test kits are donated to the testing laboratory, with cost of running the laboratory and RT-PCR machine for testing is included in the facility budget.
“The adjustment resulted from its continuing consultation with stakeholders and infectious disease experts, increased availability and affordability of testing kits in the market, and increased number of qualified facilities to do SARS-CoV-2 testing,” PhilHealth said in a statement.
The new rates also came after PhilHealth came under fire when Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon questioned the package rate it set for COVID-19 testing kits saying it might be a “little overpriced” and may cause an “unnecessary depletion” of the agency’s resources.
Drilon was referring to PhilHealth packages of P8,150 if all services for the testing are procured and provided by the testing laboratory, P5,450 if test kits donated to the testing laboratory, and P2,710 if test kits are donated to the testing laboratory with cost of running the laboratory and the RT-PCR machine for testing included in the facility budget.
President Duterte, subsequently, ordered an investigation of the allegedly overpriced COVID-19 tests to be paid by PhilHealth.
FILIPINOS OVERSEAS
The Department of Foreign Affairs said 29 more overseas Filipinos were infected with COVID-19, bringing the total infection to 5,259 in 49 countries.
But the DFA said there were more recoveries than those infected or died from the virus.
The data showed 34 recoveries yesterday and seven new deaths.
Of the overall number of overseas Filipinos who were infected, 2,205 have recovered, 2,700 are still undergoing treatment while 354 died of the virus.
The Middle East still leads in the number of cases with 3, 274 with 110 deaths, followed by Europe with 834 cases and 91 deaths and the Americas with 656 cases and 151 deaths.
The Asia and the Pacific regions registered 495 cases and two fatalities.
The Filipino community in India remains COVID 19-free despite the host country reporting over 205,000 positive cases, Ambassador Ramon Bagatsing Jr. told public briefing “Laging Handa.”
Out of 3,000 Filipinos living in the second most populous country in the world, Bagatsing said there are only a few workers hired by food and construction companies as well as manufacturers of technology products.
“Most of the Filipinos stranded here are tourists, students, and yoga enthusiasts. They are not here as workers. The few OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) here are under contract for firms in the provinces. They are all taken care of. We don’t have any problem with them,” the Ambassador said.
“They are getting in touch with us. They have been telling us that they are okay and none of them or very few of them are really interested of going home right now,” he added.
Bagatsing said most of the Filipinos residing in India are women who have married Indian men and are now part of the local community.
He said these communities have provided a strong support system to Filipinos who have run out of resources while waiting for their chance to return to the home country.
He voiced hopes that the country’s flag carrier Philippine Airlines can send another sweeper or “ferry flight” to bring home Filipinos from India before the end of the month.
Bagatsing reported that a Philippine Navy ship returning home from Oman has been able to make a port call in India to pick up 19 home-bound Filipinos as well as a package containing 200,000 donated to the Philippine Embassy by a Filipino-American.
In the neighboring country of Nepal, he said, about a dozen Filipinos are also seeking help for repatriation but are restricted indoors due to the lockdown policy in Nepal necessitating the cancellation of all international flights.
“But in so far as the local Filipino community here, we have no major problem at all and as a matter of fact, , they have been helping the embassy in so many ways,” the ambassador added.
CURVE FLATTENED?
Sen. Francis Pangilinan wants to know if the government has slowed down the spread of COVID-19 after it spent some P353 billion in the campaign against the virus.
“We’d like to know – we spent P353 billion. We will allocate another P130-P140 billion.
With all the money spent in the last several months, where are we in terms of curbing the spread of the virus? Have we flattened the curve?” Pangilinan said during the plenary discussions Tuesday night on Senate Bill No. 1564 or the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act, an extension for another three months of RA 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act.
Pangilinan said the DOH and other concerned agencies should give truthful updates on where the country stands in the fights against COVID-19, especially in its efforts on mass testing.
He said the country has one of the longest lockdowns in the world at 75 days and we should have achieved the target mass testing of 30,000 a day or one million tests during that period.
“Is there a way for us to get a better sense of how we’re going to achieve, what we set out to do? Because the target is May, and apparently, we’ve not reached that (target of one million tests and 30,000 tests daily by May),” he said.
He said the country is now on its fourth month of the campaign against the virus but the targeted number of testing has yet to be achieved.
Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, principal sponsor of SBN 1564 shared Pangilinan’s concerns, particularly on the backlog of test results issued by the DOH.
“The issue of backlog, late data on results, obviously will lead to poor contact tracing and leading to inability or failure to isolate high-risk people… If private hospitals can achieve a faster turnaround, why can’t government do the same?” Angara said.
Angara, who was also infected with the virus, said that turnaround time of results take up to 10 days, compared to the private sector which takes only two to four days.
Pangilinan also questioned the slow accreditation of testing laboratories, saying the government has only given accreditation to 30 percent to those who applied two months back.
He said the Philippines has 49 accredited labs with 81 pending applications, while Vietnam has 112, and South Korea has 500 testing centers. Both Vietnam and South Korea are winning the fight against COVID-19.
Pangilinan said he is raising these issues so that the government can “act with a sense of urgency.” — With Ashzel Hachero, Peter Tabingo, and Raymond Africa