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MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Health (DOH) said the recent drop in the number of new COVID-19 cases in the country cannot be attributed to the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) decision not to process samples until that Philippine Health Insurance Corp (PhilHealth) paid off its nearly P1 billion debt.
Of the 151 accredited laboratories nationwide, only 10 are laboratories in the People’s Republic of China, of which three are in Metro Manila. DOH data showed that from Oct. 1 to 21, these three labs reported nearly 11 percent of new infections, or 6,677, while from Sept. 10 to 30, they accounted for 13 percent of total new cases, or 10.088.
In both periods, the DOH noted that 61 laboratories nationwide recorded a decrease in the number of new cases.
In a statement, DOH said: “With this comparison, the decrease in the number of daily positive cases cannot be attributed solely to the disruption of laboratory operations in the People’s Republic of China. We are currently investigating this trend and coordinating with laboratories to determine the factors that contribute to the decrease in positive cases ”.
Since the beginning of October, new reported cases have remained below 3,000, except for October 4, 12 and 16, when new infections increased by more than 3,000.
The average daily cases in October has decreased to 2,413 from 3,083 in September and 4,209 in August.
In early October, the People’s Republic of China said it would stop processing samples uploaded to PhilHealth until the state insurer paid off its P930 million debt.
After PhilHealth received legal opinion from the Justice Department that the memorandum of agreement it signed with PRC “is not subject to procurement law,” the state insurance company said it would pay PRC on Monday, “subject to the integrity of billing requirements “and in accordance with the rules of the Audit Committee.
“This should allow the People’s Republic of China to immediately resume its testing of swab samples from the affected sectors for which PhilHealth pays,” PhilHealth said in a statement.
On Saturday, the DOH recorded an additional 2,057 cases, bringing the number of cases nationally to 367,819.
Of the new cases, 1,892 became ill between October 11 and 24, while 83 became ill between October 1 and 10.
Rizal province reported the highest number of new infections, 107, followed by Caloocan (102), Quezon City (96), Benguet (92), and Davao City (91).
There are now a total of 313,112 survivors of COVID-19 with the recovery of 442 more patients.
The death toll, however, rose to 6,934 when 19 patients succumbed to the severe respiratory illness.
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What you need to know about the coronavirus.
For more information on COVID-19, call the DOH hotline: (02) 86517800 local 1149/1150.
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