DOH eyes zero COVID-19 tests backlog by tonight
Published May 28, 2020 10:26am
The Department of Health (DOH) is eyeing to reduce COVID-19 tests backlog to zero by Thursday night, Health Undersecretary Rosario Vergeire said.
Vergeire said that from 12,000 backlog two weeks ago, this has been reduced to just over 3,600 to date.
“Backlogs are those samples [from patients] already taken but the results are yet to be released by the laboratories. Two weeks ago, ang backlog natin ay 12,000. Umonti na siya,” Vergeire said in a DOH virtual media forum.
“Noong Lunes, 7,000 na lang, naibaba natin sa 5,000 at ngayon nga, 3,683. Ang target natin, by tonight, we will be reducing all of the backlogs to zero,” she added.
Vergeire, however, said the backlogs are different from those COVID-19 cases reported by the laboratories which are pending validation of the DOH.
The UP OCTA Research team earlier reported there are over 7,000 COVID-19 cases, based on the results from 36 laboratories, that are yet to be included in the DOH tally.
“More laboratories have been able to submit their line list of positive individuals on a regular basis, and the Epidemiology Bureau is quickly matching them with its database to ensure that they are indeed unique positive individuals,” Vergeire said.
Vergeire then said the validation of the DOH is expected to improve with the rollout of COVIDKAYA program which is digitization of the data from the laboratories for validation of the DOH.
“With the rollout of COVIDKAYA, this process will be expedited as the application will automate the cross-referencing of results across different laboratories,” she said.
The Philippines has recorded 15,049 COVID-19 cases, thus far. Of this number, 3,506 recovered while 904 have died.
On May 27, the Philippines also registered 380 new COVID-19 infections, the highest number of new cases in a single day since 414 new infections were announced on April 6.—AOL, GMA News
