ANG pagsasara ng ilang testing laboratories at ang help-seeking behavior ng mga pasyente ang dahilan ng pagbaba ng bilang ng kaso ng coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) sa buong bansa nitong holidays, pahayag ng isang health official nitong Lunes.

“One, some of the laboratories during the holidays were closed and were non-operational. Second, would be the help-seeking behavior of our clients or patients or individuals, kung saan nakakita tayo some of our laboratories ang input nila ay zero talaga, walang pumupuntang pasiyente, walang specimens na nasa-submit, that’s why it has affected the positive cases we’ve been identifying,” paliwanag ni Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire sa ginanap na online media forum.

Binanggit din ni Vergeire na bumagsak sa 22,000 ang kabuuang bilang ng laboratory submissions kada araw nitong holiday season mula sa 36,000 na average.

“The whole country, we have this decrease of five percent in our daily number of positive cases, and in the National Capital Region, mayroon tayong pagbaba ng four percent in the reported cases,” aniya.

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Dagdag pa niya, kalimitang itinutuon ng mga Pilipino ang kanilang sarili sa pamilya at ipinagpapaliban ang kanilang health checkups tuwing holidays.

Dahil balik na sa normal ang lahat ng all testing laboratories mula nitong Lunes, sinabi ni Vergeire na makikita ang normal at real trend sa bilang ng kaso sa kalagitnaan ng Enero.

“When there was a glitch in the CDRS (Covid-19 Data Repository System) the other day, we also included in our message that the CDRS is back to its original, normal functions already, the technical glitch was for a short period and it was immediately fixed so this did not affect the number so much,” aniya pa.

Ang Inter Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease, aniya, ay naglabas na ng paalala sa mga non-compliant laboratories na mabibigong magsumite ng kanilang daily report.

“We were also able to coordinate with local governments para matulungan din nila tayo para magsubmit talaga ang mga reporting units. Unfortunately, up until now, we still see non-compliant facilities, and we were able to suspend one of the big laboratories last December 29 because of its continuous non-compliance to our reportorial requirements,” ayon pa kay Vergeire.

Pinaalalahanan naman ng DoH ang mga laboratory na magsumite ng kanilang ulat dahil bahagi ito ng requirements upang mapanatili ang kanilang lisensiya na mag-operate.

Hanggang nitong Enero 2, iniulat ng DoH na may 154 licensed RT-PCR laboratories at 45 licensed GeneXpert laboratories sa buong bansa.