The Department of Health will announce “time-based” COVID-19 recoveries—or mild cases who eventually get better during isolation—under its data reconciliation program every Sunday, instead of recording bulk recoveries in just one day, an official said Friday.
Mild to asymptomatic patients are tagged as recoveries once their symptoms disappear and after completing 14 days in quarantine. Instead of recording a large number of time-based recoveries at one time, the weekly update will better reflect the COVID-19 recovery situation.
“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 (and we will do that every Sunday so we avoid bulk announcements.),” Health Usec. Maria Rosario Vergeire said.
Under Oplan Recovery, the DOH coordinated with local government units to collect, validate, and reconcile data on recovered patients. On July 30, the DOH recorded 38,075 recoveries. Of that number, DOH said 37,166 of those were classified as time-based recoveries.
The public questioned the veracity of the data and method of reporting recoveries when the figures for July 30 were released. However, the DOH maintains that the method is based on scientific evidence and is in line with international standards.
