COVID-19 PANDEMIC Day 140: ASIA & PACIFIC -Three new relapse cases, no new infections

With mass testing for the novel coronavirus starting Tuesday, the Department of Health announced the highest number of new recoveries from COVID-19 for one day at 53, which resulted in a total of 295 recoveries as of April

The new confirmed cases of 291 brought total coronavirus cases in the Philippines to 5,223. The DOH has yet to announce the first batch of data from those undergoing the mass testing at 10 approved centers across the country.As 20 more patients lost their battle to COVID-19, the death toll from the disease climbed to 335.This developed as President Rodrigo Duterte, to enable the government to conduct more COVID-19 tests, has approved the purchase of rapid test kits, polymerase chain reaction machines and consumables, automatic extracting machines, and biomedical freezers.Inter-Agency Task Force spokesman Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said that while the DOH cannot directly procure the rapid test kits due to the absence of approval from the Health Technology Assessment Council, the government could bypass the restrictions by ordering the Office of Civil Defense to make the purchase.“I’m clearing the way. I will ask Secretary Francisco Duque to talk to the people in charge, Secretary Carlito Galvez. And they can proceed to buy it immediately,”  President Duterte said in a late Monday night meeting.The IATF for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease said that the laboratory-based PCR will remain the “gold standard” of testing.National Task Force against COVID-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. said the government will need to purchase 900,000 polymerase chain reaction-based kits to confirm the validity of results obtained from the use of rapid test kits.Galvez said PCR-based kits are expected to cost around P3.2 billion as the government is eyeing to buy two-million rapid test kits.The DOH earlier said it does not recommend the use of rapid test kits because they can produce false positives and false negatives.Rapid test kits can only detect the antibodies produced by the body to combat the disease and are prone to false negatives or false positives even if these can produce results faster than PCR-based kits, he said.Galvez said the DOH needs to test about 15,000 people for possible coronavirus infection.He noted that of the 15,000 potential COVID-19 “suspects,” about 5,000 to 8,000 are in Metro Manila.

The Health department defines a COVID-19 “suspect” as someone who has symptoms of the respiratory disease and travel or residence in a hotspot of the disease or exposure to a confirmed or probable carrier.The country has 102,000 test kits and the government plans to buy some one million more units, Galvez said.Meanwhile, Senator Nancy Binay yesterday said the IATF should immediately address the lack of clear protocol in handling COVID-related fatalities, including cadaver management, storage, cremation and assistance to families.She said the families of those who died from COVID-19 are having a hard time securing death certificates because some LGUs and barangay officials do not know what the protocols are if a patient dies inside his or her home, and how to properly handle the bodies which can no longer be accommodated in mortuary freezers and crematoriums.The senator said because of the lack of clear guidelines from IATF, she has received reports that some private crematoriums are asking for P100,000 for the cremation of COVID-positive remains..Under the DSWD Revised Guidelines on AICS for burial assistance, the department will shoulder part of the funeral cost and the family can receive up to P10,000 assistance even if they do not submit a case study report.As of 2020, there are only 60 crematoriums operating nationwide, 90 percent of which are privately-owned, and 25 out of 60 are in Metro Manila. Only six are publicly-owned (Manila, Pasay, Mandaluyong, Quezon City, Dasmariñas City, and Antipolo City) and are mostly operated by the local government—but of the six, only five are operational and can only accommodate three to five cadavers a day.Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, meanwhile, emphasize the key role of local government units in the fight against COVID-19, saying they should follow the test, quarantine and treatment approach.He said LGUs should have more autonomy in procuring testing kits or setting up testing facilities to speed up detection of COVID-19 positive cases from every household living on every street within every barangay.This is what is being done in Valenzuela City, which has started local mass testing in cooperation with The Medical City, he said. In its agreement with the hospital, the TMC processes the tests and reserves 25 tests per day for Valenzuela City but that can be expanded to 50 depending on the workload.Based on the results, authorities will identify persons that need to be quarantined or isolated.“In Valenzuela, first to be tested are the sick and their household, their companions in the house, their relatives and even their neighbors,” he said./  by Vito Barcelo and Macon Ramos-Araneta