Vice President Leni Robredo has renewed her call for the government to conduct more COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) testing after the number of infections due to the Delta variant rose to an all-time high of 22,366 new cases on Monday, Aug. 30.
“Kahit para na tayong sirang plaka, uulitin pa din natin (Even if we sound like a broken vinyl record) - we are simply not testing enough!!” Robredo said in a statement.
The Vice President said the huge number only shows that there are so many people there out in the streets that are unaware that they are already infected with the virus. This situation, she added, could lead to more infections.
“Kung hindi natin aayusin trabaho natin, ilang buhay pa yung mawawala? (If we will not do our job well, how many more lives will be lost?),” she stressed.
Aside from the 22,366 new cases, the Department of Health also placed the positivity rate at 27.5 percent out of the 65,237 tests conducted.
“We can safely presume that the real number of new cases is so much more than these,” Robredo said.
She explained that one of the reasons why there is insufficiency in testing is due to the current “weak” contact tracing system.
“Hindi natin ma identify index cases kaya hindi din natin mahinto yung transmission chains (We cannot identify index cases that’s why we cannot stop the transmission chains,” Robredo said.
She expressed her concern over the effect of the rising COVID-19 infections on the availability of hospital beds to accommodate those who needed medical attention.
When the number of cases was still hovering somewhere between 14,000-15,000, the Vice President noted that the people have been already experiencing difficulty in finding hospital vacancies
Robredo said the situation in hospitals could be dire this time when new cases have already reached a record high.
“Ang instructions, kung emergency na, dumirecho na sa ER ng pinakamalapit na ospital. Ang problema, pati ER (emergecny room) ng mga ospital, napakahaba na ng linya (The instructions for emergency cases is to go directly to the ER of the nearest hospital. But the problem, even hospital ERs are already experiencing a long queue,” she said.