MANILA – The Department of Health (DOH) has clarified that the re-tagging of over 37,000 asymptomatic and mild coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases was based on “scientific evidence.”
DOH Undersecretary Rosario Vergeire made the statement after the re-tagging of asymptomatic and mild COVID-19 cases as recovered due to improved data harmonization among government agencies.
Vergeire said that asymptomatic patients can already be tagged as recovered if the patient did not show symptoms for 14 days since the day of Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test.
Those with mild symptoms, on the other hand, will be deemed recovered once they are deemed clinically recovered by their doctor and finished the required 14-day isolation period.
“Iyong clinically recovered, meaning wala ka ng sintomas tulad ng lagnat. Kung sa ika-10th day iyong clinical recovery, you have to be in isolation for another four days to be tagged as recovered,” she said in a virtual press conference.
“This is not an assumption. This is based on scientific evidence. Experts across the globe are backing this up, and this is being implemented in other countries also,” Vergeire added.
The DOH official further said that the record number of COVID-19 recoveries is expected to happen, considering that over 90% of the confirmed cases in the country are mild and asymptomatic cases.
Vergeire also said conducting RT-PCR test is not an effective way to determine if the patient has recovered from COVID-19, considering that a patient can repeatedly test positive for COVID-19 even if the patient is already not infectious./PN
