Former Senator now Sorsogon Gov. Francis “Chiz” Escudero. FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Former senator and now Sorsogon Governor Francis Escudero has joined the numerous individuals calling for Health Secretary Francisco Duque III’s replacement, after the country tallied a dubious record of 38,000 recoveries in a single day.
Escudero explained on Thursday that the Department of Health’s “intolerable and insulting” adjustment — now identifying mild and asymptomatic cases who stayed healthy for 14 days as recovered patients — is enough for President Rodrigo Duterte to fire Duque.
Earlier, DOH said that it has also recorded the highest single increase in confirmed cases at 3,954, bringing the total number to 89,374 — of which, 1,983 patients have died while 65,064 have recovered.
“After recording the highest one-day COVID-19 positive new cases of 3,954, the Department of Health reports a 38,075 ‘mass recovery adjustment’ to include mild/asymptomatic cases,” Escudero said in a Facebook post.
“This is ‘only in the Philippines’ and is intolerable and insulting! PRRD: Sir, please fire Sec. Duque! You/we/I deserve better po!” he added.
The DOH has been the target of ridicule in social media, after netizens noted that the government supposedly changed the way it tallies recoveries just to make it appear that more people are fighting off the disease.
The keywords “mass recovery” is now a trending topic on Twitter, with over 7,400 tweets as of posting time — with majority of the posts denouncing the government for allegedly trying to deceive the public.
“DOH’s data team made a ‘mass recovery’ adjustment in which mild & asymptomatic cases are now being re-tagged as recovered. Is this not deception? DELIBERATE manipulation of data to make us think recoveries are increasing?” a Twitter user asked.
While others chided DOH for making this “mass recovery” scheme without actually doing “mass testing.”
“You can’t give us mass testing and now, you’re giving us this mass recovery??? How come those who have mild symptoms and asymptomatic cases were recovered when they still have the virus??? Please we’re not as dumb as the DOH secretary, so stop trying to fool us,” another user said.
DOH explained in their COVID-19 bulletin that 37,166 of the 38,075 recoveries reported on Thursday included “cases with mild disease or asymptomatic whose date of onset of illness or specimen collection was more than 14 days ago.”