Why we shouldn’t celebrate the 65,000+ recoveries tagged by DOH

July 30 recorded one of the highest single-day rise in COVID-19 cases in the Philippines. It also marked the highest number of COVID-19 recoveries in one day, reaching up to 38,075. Because of this, the total COVID-19 recoveries are now at a whopping 65,000+, leaving us with a smaller number of active cases.

Usually, this is a cause for celebration, but the Department of Health (DOH) made this high number of recoveries possible by tagging mild and asymptomatic cases as recovered after 14 days since their symptoms have shown or since the date of specimen collection.

This means that even if they developed symptoms after, they’re considered as recovered per DOH’s OPLAN RECOVERY. DOH no longer relies on tests that come out negative or on doctors checking up on patients to say that they have fully recovered because DOH will be relying on a World Health Organization (WHO) guideline that says the risk of passing on the virus drops after 10 days and add an additional three days in isolation just to be sure.

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photo from the Department of Health

14 days might have passed since they showed symptoms but that is only a guide by the WHO as to when a patient should be released from isolation. These people could develop worse symptoms or even die – remember when the family of a man who died from COVID-19 received a certificate claiming that he had recovered?

So even if DOH claims that 65,064 have recovered from COVID-19, this is because they changed the way they interpret their data and how recoveries work. Because of this, Metro Manila remains under General Community Quarantine even though hospitals are reporting near to full capacity for COVID-19 patients.

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