The Department of Health (DOH) reported 70,331 new confirmed COVID-19 cases in 16 days—the duration in between the first batch of mass recovery implemented on July 30 and the second one scheduled on August 16. The number is double than the more than 34,000 cases tagged as recovered on July 30 with DOH’s ‘mass recovery’ program.
New confirmed COVID-19 cases per day from July 31 to August 15*
*Data from DOH
The DOH reported total recoveries 65,064 and active cases left were 22,327 after the mass recovery on July 30.
Meanwhile, active cases on August 15 were 83,109, while recoveries numbered to 72,209. In 16 days, there were 60,782 more active cases, while there were only 7,145 additional recoveries.
Total cases as of August 15 reached 157,918.
The more than 34,000 removed from active cases and tagged as recovered with DOH’s ‘mass recovery’ program were patients with mild or no symptoms after 14 days from the date of onset of symptoms or by date specimen collection. Before, the DOH required 1-2 confirmatory RT-PCR tests with negative results before a patient was tagged as recovered.
The recoveries on July 30 were initially reported as 38,075, but was listed as 34,144 less in the active cases in the DOH Beat COVID-19 Philippine Situationer with data as of July 30.
The DOH explained its mass recovery program following public criticism, including legislators who again called for DOH Sec. Francisco Duque III’s resignation and some hit the DOH for ‘doctoring’ (treating) the data instead of the patients.
“Following Department Memorandum No. 2020-0258, as endorsed by clinical practice guidelines and our technical advisory groups, patients with mild or no symptoms are tagged as recovered 14 days from the date of onset of symptoms or by date specimen collection. Current recovery policies now show that at the 10th day of illness, the risk of transmitting the virus to other people is significantly reduced. This clinical recovery protocol is followed by the US CDC, European CDC, and India,” explained DOH.
The DOH posted on August 13 a notification on the August 16 2nd batch of mass recovery.
Heads up! This is to inform the public that on Sunday, 16 August 2020, another batch of recoveries from DOH's OPLAN…
Geplaatst door Department of Health (Philippines) op Donderdag 13 augustus 2020
“OPLAN RECOVERY is an initiative that the DOH activated to monitor the statuses of confirmed COVID-19 cases, particularly deaths and recoveries to ensure that our data is updated and accurate. Since its activation, DOH has reported over 4,000 time-based recoveries as of July 13 and over 37,000 time-based recoveries last July 30,” said the announcement.
The Health agency added, “Moreover, we are announcing that recoveries from COVID-19 will be reported regularly every Sunday after validation by our regional offices with LGUs.”
