WITH more people needing to get tested for coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the independent OCTA Research yesterday expressed concerns on the potential overwhelming of laboratory facilities and its possible effect on the pandemic picture in the country.
In a phone interview, OCTA fellow Guido David said they are concerned over the likelihood
of laboratories experiencing over capacity in testing swab samples.
“At this level, our testing is having a difficult time. It’s being strained. Probably, we’re starting to lose visibility of the pandemic situation,” said David, adding that this is possible once there are not enough timely tests conducted by laboratories.
“If the test capacity, for example, is 50,000, if we have more than 50,000 samples, then we cannot know the results of the excess samples in a timely manner,” David explained.
“We wouldn’t know if we have more positive cases than what we see in the results. The other samples will become backlogs, and thus reduce our visibility of the pandemic,” he added.
Presidential adviser for COVID-19 response Vince Dizon said Reverse Transcription —Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test results have recently been experiencing delays due to more people getting tested and laboratory technicians processing the tests also catching the virus.
Dizon, during the Laging Handa public briefing, apologized to the public for the slow turnout of test results, which he acknowledged are supposed to be released within two to three days.
“Talagang matagal po ang turn-around time natin ngayon sa pagti-test. Unang-unang rason po diyan is sa dami po talaga ng ating mga kababayan na nagpapa-test dahil po maraming nagpo-positibo at marami pong nagiging close contact iyong ating mga kababayang nagpo-positibo (The turnaround time for our testing is taking longer this time. The first reason is many of our countrymen are getting tested because many are testing positive and their close contacts have also been testing positive),” Dizon said.
“At ang pinakamabigat dito…kaya humihingi po tayo ng pasensiya sa ating mga kababayan, marami po sa ating mga technician, mga med tech, mga laboratory technician ay nagp–positibo rin po at sila ay kinakailangang mag-isolate at hindi po sila nakakapag-report sa trabaho (And what is worse here, that’s why we are apologizing to our countrymen, is that many of our technicians, med tech and laboratory technicians, are testing positive and they too need to isolate and cannot report for work),” he added.
The Department of Health (DOH) reported 33,169 new COVID cases yesterday, bringing the country’s total number of cases to 2.998 million.
Dizon said to address the shortage in personnel, the government is cutting the isolation period for COVID-19 infected healthcare workers who are fully vaccinated and asymptomatic to five days, while medical professionals who are close contacts of COVID patients do not need to isolate themselves if they have no symptoms.
He said the new policy will improve the laboratories’ operations and expedite the processes.
He said the government is also trying to tap laboratories outside Metro Manila, especially those with low test demands, and sending them the samples to expedite the processing and release of results.
At the same time, Dizon reminded the public of the price cap on RT-PCR tests amid reports that some laboratories have started charging higher fees due to the growing demand.
He said there is enough supply for the RT-PCR test which should be around P2,500.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said the RT-PCR test for symptomatic COVID patients should also be covered by a Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) package.
In a television interview, David said they are also worried about the positivity rate in the National Capital Region (NCR) going up.
As of Monday, David said the positivity rate in Metro Manila has increased to 52 percent.
“If it goes beyond 50 percent, like 60 percent, we will definitely be losing visibility (of the pandemic),” said David.
Data from the Department of Health shows that, for January 8, the positivity rate in the Philippines stood at 46 percent among the 73,234 tested samples.
DOWNTREND?
Infectious disease and vaccine expert Dr. Rontgene Solante, in an interview with CNN Philippines, said the DOH foresees the start of a possible downtrend in COVID-19 cases, particularly of the Omicron variant, by the end of January.
Solante said Omicron cases may start to peak “in the coming days,” which means a downtrend is inevitable in two to three weeks or towards the end of January.
Solante said the daily exponential increase in cases was not surprising because this is the characteristic of the Omicron variant.
He said Omicron also has a short manifestation compared to other variants such as the Delta wherein some patients are infected for five to seven days.
“With this type of virus where the manifestation is also short, and in fact there are patients who have manifestation in less than five days, less than seven days, they are very highly transmissible but less severe. Most likely in the next two to three weeks we can see a trend going towards the downtrend of the cases,” he said.
Solante said that with the short period and mild manifestations, it is also possible that the number of cases may even be between 30,000 to 40,000 a day but not all are already reported as some have already gone on home quarantine.
He and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said home quarantine is encouraged so as not to overwhelm hospital facilities.
Nograles, in an interview with ANC yesterday, also pushed for telemedicine and telehealth consultations, especially for those on home quarantine.
He said hospital beds should be allocated for moderate, critical and severe cases as well as elders and with comorbidities who may have mild symptoms.
Solante explained that mild cases should stay home and observe the progression of their symptoms especially if they are symptomatic.
“Chances are you have a high viral load. You have a higher risk of infecting others as compared to those who are asymptomatic,” he said adding that if a member of a family is symptomatic, those in the household should also go in isolation to prevent the possible spread of COVID-19.
DEMICRON
The DOH yesterday sought to allay fears over reported cases of COVID-19 with a combination of Delta and Omicron variants in other countries.
In a brief statement, the DOH said there has been no official identification and analysis yet on the classification of the supposed Deltacron/Delmicron variant.
“The World Health Organization (WHO) is the sole authority to validate these variants, and to determine if it is a Variant under Monitoring (VUM), Variant of Interest (VOI), or Variant of Concern (VOC),” said the DOH.
In addition, the health department said there has been no detected case of the Deltacron/Delmicron variants in the country as per the latest batch of whole genome sequencing.
“Currently, no recorded cases here in the Philippines. Our experts are still studying this,” said the DOH.
The statement comes amid reports of the detection of the Deltacron/Delmicron variant in other countries. The variant is seen as a double variant of COVID-19 with the name derived by combining the Delta variant and the Omicron variant.
According to the DOH, out of the 20,006 samples sequenced assigned with a lineage in the country, 42.47% of samples were positive for the Delta variant.
On the other hand, only 0.21 percent of samples are positive for the Omicron variant.
Other COVID-19 variants detected in the country are the Beta, Alpha, and Gamma. — With Jocelyn Montemayor
