Garcia to implement through EO ‘time based discharge’ for Cebu province COVID patients

Talisay City Health Officers conduct swab tests in Sitio Laray, Barangay San Roque after a resident proved positive to the COVID-19. | Photo Courtesy of Mayor Samsam Gullas’ Facebook page

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia has reiterated that the province is determined to shift to a “time-based” discharge policy for its coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients instead of waiting for a negative result from polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing.

Garcia said she will have to discuss the matter with the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) Regional Director Dr. Jaime Bernadas to set the cut-off date for the implementation of the new policy.

Garcia, during a meeting with the mayors last Saturday, May 30, 2020, announced that the province will now pattern its discharge policy with that of Singapore, which allows its “clinically-well patient” to be released after 21 days from the onset of the infection.

“If such an efficient country as Singapore is already doing this, nganong di man ni nato mahimo (then why can’t we do it, too)?” Garcia said during Monday evening’s press conference.

Garcia said the time-based discharge is more efficient rather than waiting for two negative results of PCR tests which usually takes several days because of the volume of samples that the laboratories are catering to.

READ: No PCR negative needed; Gwen wants ‘time based’ discharge for COVID patients

In no longer requiring repeat testing, Garcia said the government would be able to focus its meager resources on patients with symptoms who need the test.

Garcia said she will ask the DOH and the regional Interagency Task Force (IATF) on the matter before releasing an executive order that will make the province officially shift to time-based discharge.

“Kung di sila motando, moingon man lang gyud ko, by Executive order, ask everyone nga atong nag-positive. Kahibaw ka unsay epekto ana? I’ll take the Talisay, naay usa mag-positive unya contact trace dayon, usahay 40 o 50 kabuok [ang close contacts]. Lockdown tibuok barangay. I-test, unya dugay man kaayo mobalik ang result,”Garcia said.

While waiting for the test results of close contacts, these individuals are taken on isolation as a precautionary measure.

“We are putting an unnecessary restriction on the lives of people when we could have resorted to another procedure aron mahuman na ta,” Garcia said.

At present, positive individuals are not directly discharged even when they no longer have symptoms unless they already render a negative result.

The requirement of a negative PCR result to be declared as “recovered,” Garcia said, is the reason why the recovery rate here is “low.”

“We cannot declare them as recovered because it takes long before their repeat tests return,” she said in Cebuano.

Garcia also compared the discharge policy for COVID with that of other diseases, such as dengue, which only require that a patient is clinically well and not a negative repeat test to be sent home. /bmjo