MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) has observed an increase in the number of asymptomatic COVID-19 patients as the country ramps up vaccination.
In an online media briefing on Wednesday, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that the DOH is trying to analyze the reason for the increasing number of asymptomatic patients, but noted that their main assumption is that COVID-19 vaccines are working.
“Nakita natin na mas tumaas nang husto ang asymptomatic cases natin. Pinagaaralan natin ‘yan ngayon (We saw that the number of asymptomatic cases really increased. We are studying it now),” said Vergeire.
“We would like to also see if ‘yung paggamit natin ng ibang methods ng pagtetest (if the use of different testing methods) have an effect on this increasing number of mild and asymptomatic [cases], but our number one assumption would be the vaccines are working for all of us. But evidence should be there, so we are now analyzing,” she added.
Based on the COVID-19 case bulletin of the DOH on Tuesday, 16.4 percent of the current 132,139 active cases of the disease are asymptomatic. During the last week of February before the government launched vaccination, the percentage of asymptomatic patients composed only around five to six percent of the active cases.
“Pinag-aaralan namin ‘yan ngayon, pero ang masasabi lang namin ngayon ay because number of cases are increasing, therefore tumataas din itong mga kaso na mayroong mild and asymptomatic cases,” said Vergeire.
(We are studying it now, but what we can say at this point is that because the number of cases are increasing, the number of mild and asymptomatic cases are also rising.)
Health experts earlier explained that while COVID-19 vaccines may not completely protect against infection, it may prevent the severe form of the disease, as well as hospitalization and death.
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