The Department of Health (DOH) changed its classification of cases on May 29, following the spike of cases on May 28 that DOH said was due to the agency catching up with its testing backlogs. A total of 1,046 cases were reported on May 29, but only 46 of these are “fresh cases” or those with results released within three days, while 1,000 are “late cases” or the results that were released to patients after four days. The DOH confirmed cases as of May 29 is at 16,634, among them 11,972 active cases.
Despite the clarification or new classification of “late cases”, active cases remain at 71% in the last three days while recovery rate is at 23%. These late cases are not so late or old as most remain active. While 1,046 cases were added on May 29, only 122 recoveries were reported.
Knowing the testing backlog of the DOH, with many tests results were delayed for one to two weeks or more as testing capacity is being increased, would the DOH now go back to all its reported data day per day to say which one of these cases were “fresh” and which one are “late cases”? The DOH interpretations on the spread of COVID-19, such as “flattening the curve,” “slowing down of cases” and “doubling time,” supposedly depended on this data that also they reported.
The policies of the government regarding the pandemic response, such as the levels of quarantine imposed, supposedly also depended on this data. The longest lockdown in the world that was imposed in Metro Manila from March 15 to May 31 would now shift to general community quarantine or the “new normal.”
On May 28, the Health agency reported a record-breaking 539 cases (highest since March 31) as the government announced the shift to general community quarantine (GCQ) in Metro Manila. The DOH would later explain that only 109 of the 539 are “fresh cases” and 430 are “late cases” and the increase in reported cases is due to aggressive validation and then introduced a new classification that delayed their daily 4pm reporting of cases to past 9pm. Update on COVID-19 cases for May 30 has not yet been reported as of the announced 8pm schedule today.
The DOH had more than 7,000 testing backlogs on Monday and DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire reporting the new cases and explain the new classification, said that backlog has been reduced to 545 as of May 29. The testing backlog refers to samples that are not tested, or test results that are not released beyond 72 hours.
Another backlog that the DOH need to catch up with is the validation of cases. The total number of 23,079 positive cases as of May 28, but the DOH only announces confirmed or validated cases. At least 6,445 positive tests results are yet to be validated by DOH to avoid errors or duplications, but around this number would more or less be added to the total of COVID-19 unless there was a great margin of error in the tests results.
