Battling coronavirus: Real-time data needed

The Department of Health says the rising number of new coronavirus infections is the result of its increased testing capacity and the public’s failure to comply with the minimum health standards it has set to control the spread of the bug that causes COVID-19. But Sen. Joel Villanueva says health officials should shift from “passive” to “active” surveillance to get real-time data in the fight against the virus.

The Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday attributed the rise in COVID-19 cases to its increased testing capacity and the public’s failure to comply with the minimum health standards it set to control the spread of the new coronavirus that causes the severe respiratory disease.

According to Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, the increase in the number of people testing positive for SARS-COV-2, the causative virus of COVID-19, was due in part to continuing transmission of the pathogen in communities because of “lack of implementation of minimum health standards.”

Health measures

“We appeal to everyone to always comply with our minimum health standards, such as wearing masks, frequent handwashing and physical distancing, especially in enclosed areas and in places without proper ventilation,” Vergeire said.

“We expect cases to continue to rise as we open up because there is more contact between people and a lot still forget to observe our minimum health protocols,” she said.

Vergeire reiterated that strict compliance with the health measures was necessary, especially that recent studies found a mutation of the virus, which makes it more infectious.

Earlier, Dr. Edsel Salvana, infectious disease expert and DOH technical advisory group member, said the D614G mutation “makes the virus more infectious.” This means it can spread faster and overwhelm the country’s health system “if we don’t double our control efforts.”

“Mutations do occur with [the] COVID-19 virus, and this particular one is now more common in the world and seems to be more infectious. We are continuing to monitor this development and our scientists are sequencing some of our local viruses as we speak,” Vergeire said.

“Again, our safety protocols must be strengthened … Let us continue to limit our travel to only essential ones,” she added.

On Tuesday, the DOH reported an additional 1,540 infections, bringing the nationism wide tally to 47,873. Of the new cases recorded from 69 of the 74 accredited laboratories, 993 were patients who tested positive within the last three days. Metro Manila recorded the highest number of these cases, 428, followed by Central Visayas, which had 109.

The remainder of the new cases, or 547, were patients who tested positive four days ago or earlier. Metro Manila also had the most number of these cases, 191, while Central Visayas had 65.

There were a total of 12,386 patients who had recovered from COVID-19 with the recovery of 201 more patients.

The death toll, however, rose to 1,309 as six patients succumbed from the severe respiratory disease. Three of these patients died in June.

On Sunday, the DOH’S accredited laboratories were able to process 16,180 samples. But a testing backlog of 10,341 remained.

‘Passive surveillance’

Commenting on the rising number of coronavirus infections on Tuesday, Sen. Joel Villanueva said the Philippines was not conducting epidemiological surveillance to monitor the spread of the