DOH Usec. Maria Rosario Vergeire. Screengrab from RTVM
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) will announce “time-based” coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) recoveries under its “Oplan Recovery” program every Sunday, the agency’s spokesperson said Friday.
Time-based recoveries are coronavirus patients released from isolation after a certain number of days of quarantine and after symptoms have disappeared.
“Starting this Sunday, we are going to announce again this time-based recovered patients and every Sunday gagawin na natin ‘yan para hindi tayo na nagbu-bulk lagi ng announcement,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told reporters.
The DOH reported on July 30 a massive rise in recoveries of over 38,075. It noted that 37,166 are considered “time-based recoveries.”
Under the scheme, asymptomatic patients ad those with mild symptoms will be tagged as recovered after they complete the mandatory 14-day quarantine from the time they first start showing symptoms of COVID-19, or their samples are collected for testing.
The steep rise in recoveries sparked doubts and drew questions from the public on how DOH handles critical COVID-19 data.
The health department, however, insisted that the method is based on scientific evidence and at par with international standards.