Evacuees with Covid symptoms to get testing priority

HEALTH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Wednesday said that those who start to feel Covid-19 symptoms will be prioritized in the antigen test that will be conducted in the evacuation centers.

Although it is impossible to test everyone due to limited resources, Vergeire said that those experiencing symptoms like fever, cough, flu, and loss of smell and taste will be isolated right away and will undergo testing.

“Hindi naman po natin maikakaila na [We cannot deny that] there’s really a risk of this increased transmission kung sakasakali [ just in case] because of the situation [in the evacuation centers],” Vergeire said in a media forum.

She said that Health Emergency Response Teams have been deployed in typhoonstricken areas.

The DOH, she added, already sent medicines like ferrous sulfate and calcium carbonate for the evacuees.

Citing the report of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Vergeire said a total of 55,921 families or 223,378 individuals are now in the evacuation centers in Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Bicol and the National Capital Region.

Covid case updates

ON Wednesday, the Covid-19 cases surged to 412,097.

A total of 1,383 additional cases were logged with 143 recoveries and 95 deaths.

Of the total number of cases, 7.2 percent (29,474) are active, 90.9 percent (374,666) have recovered, and 1.93 percent (7,957) have died.

Seventeen laboratories were not able to submit their data to the Covid-19 Data Repository System on November 17.

AP/AARON FAVILA RESIDENTS stay inside a dimly-lit classroom during a power interruption inside a school that was converted into an evacuation center after floods inundate villages in Marikina City due to Typhoon Ulysses on Thursday, November 12, 2020.