Quezon City Rep. Precious Hipolito Castelo has sought a congressional probe on the Department of Health's supposed delayed release and reporting of COVID-19 test results.
Castelo filed House Resolution No. 1010 asking the House Committee on Health chaired by Quezon Rep. Angelina Tan to look into the lamentable reporting of the COVID-19 test results by the DOH as demonstrated by thousands of case backlogs in the country.
"Delay in the release of test results and delay in the reporting of confirmed test results undeniably compromise the implementation of other health protocols in place such as contract tracing and isolation of COVID-19 positive patients," Castelo said.
"The delay also creates an uncertainty on whether or not the health protocols in place are sufficient to combat public health crisis," she added.
Castelo scored the DOH's previous manner of reporting of COVID-19 data in which cases have been classified as fresh and late.
Under the COVID-19 case classification system implemented last May, fresh cases refer to test results that came out and had been validated in the last three days while late cases are those that came out four days or older but were just recently confirmed, she said.
The DOH's presentation of COVID-19 case data was reformatted in May after it reported a highest single day increase in cases.
Castelo noted that the Philippines is the only country in the world that classified COVID-19 test results as fresh and late cases.
"Four months into this pandemic, there ought to be an improvement in the pace of COVID-19 testing and reporting, as these are the baseline criteria for crafting policies and strategies which will improve the public health situation in our country," Castelo stressed.
More than a week ago, the DOH presented a new way of reporting cases of COVID-19 and decided to remove the distinction of fresh and late cases.