Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 30) — The Department of Health (DOH) said it is now getting a clearer picture of how many people have COVID-19 as more test kits and laboratories are available for diagnosis.
Speaking to CNN Philippines on Monday, DOH spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire said despite the decrease in backlogs, cases are still rising.
“Sa ngayon ho, nakikita na ho natin na kakaunti na yung backlog ay tumataas pa rin yung ating mga kaso,” Vergeire said. “So ibig sabihin po because na-extend natin ang capacity ng ating laboratoryo, mas marami tayong nate-test, mas nakikita na po natin ngayon ang mga positibong kaso. So hindi po natin irelate na ito lang ay artificial pa rin hanggang sa ngayon. Ang ibig sabihin nito nakikita na po natin yung positibo sa ating population at lalo po din tayo dapat mag-ingat.”
[Translation: We see now that backlogs are going down, but cases are still going up. It means that because we have extended the capacity of laboratories, we are able to do more tests, we can now see clearly the positive cases. So we can’t call this artificial. What this means is we now have a clearer picture of who is positive in the population and we have to be even more careful.]
The country has logged over a thousand COVID-19 cases. Vergeire said they cannot say whether the country has seen the peak as far as cases are concerned.
“Kung ito yung peak, yung pinakamadami, hindi pa po siguro dahil nakikita natin yung mga positibo, tine-trace po natin yung mga contacts at nakikita po nating marami pa rin tayong mga persons under monitoring,” she told CNN Pilippines Balitaan.
[Translation: This is not yet the peak because we can see those who are positive, we are tracing those have come in contact with the positive, and we can see that there are more persons under monitoring.]
Vergeire also said they are working with the Inter-Agency Task Force to see how the quarantine has affected the number of cases.
In a separate interview during the Laging Handa briefing, Vergeire said the increased number of available test kits and the expanded capacity of laboratories have boosted efforts in the fight against the virus. Nonetheless, she said there is no room for complacency.
She added there were 30 laboratories who have submitted letters of intent to be assessed to be part of sub-national laboratories in the country.
