Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 28) — Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri said hospitals and government laboratories need the right machines to support medical experts in the country.
Zubiri said this on Tuesday during his privilege speech, wherein he also said he tested negative for the virus after a confirmatory test on Monday through the Philippine Red Cross.
“I will put a premium on the test conducted by the Philippine Red Cross. Not only because I have utmost trust and confidence in our Chairman, Sen. Richard Gordon, but because Red Cross is using state-of-the-art machines,” he said.
He added that “this is not to discount the capabilities and professionalism of our medical experts in our hospitals and government laboratories,” but their skills will be wasted if they will not be supported by the right and necessary machines.
Zubiri, who recovered from the virus in April, and seven other people who were supposed to attend yesterday’s State of the Nation Address tested positive for COVID-19 after undergoing a test in the weekend as required before entering the plenary hall of the Batasang Pambansa Complex.
The senator also said that a certain level of expertise should have already been achieved in terms of testing given that the country is already more than four months into the pandemic.
“If our testing protocols are not accurate or suited to the conditions of patients, whether they are new infections or recovered patients, we may not be presenting a clear picture of the number of COVID cases,” he said. “It could be higher, or it could even be lower than the current figures, due to false-positive or false-negative cases.”
For the case of Zubiri, Health Spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire said him testing positive again could be due to remaining residues of the virus in his system. There is still no evidence of reinfection, she noted.
Vergeire said if ever an evidence will be discovered the he will be counted twice in the total number of infections, but for now, Zubiri’s case will still be considered as one.
According to the World Health Organization, there is still no proof that a recovered COVID-19 patient is protected from re-infection.
