OCTA Research differs with DOH on ending daily COVID-19 bulletins
OCTA Research does not agree with the Department of Health's (DOH) ending its daily COVID-19 case bulletins starting Monday.
During the ''Laging Handa'' public briefing, OCTA Research Fellow Guido David said the decision of the DOH to report the COVID-19 case bulletin on a weekly basis will affect their monitoring.
"For us, it will affect our monitoring because maybe we will no longer see the other trends," he said.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire earlier said the DOH is revising the case bulletin to shift the mindset of the public.
"We want to change the mindset of our people, wherein they are used to looking at the numbers... We want to shift focus to something the population should care more, which are the severe and critical cases and the healthcare system," said Vergeire
In Monday's new format, the DOH said there were 6,297 cases from March 1-7. Deaths reached 615 and three cases were new, severe and critical.
ICU beds were 25.7 percent used while there were 1,055 severe and critical admissions. The vaccination coverage is 70.76 percent.
For now, David said the lack of daily bulletins is not a big factor since the number of COVID-19 cases in the country continue to decrease.
"For now it is not a big factor... but we cannot say if there will be another variant, but we hope there's none," he said.
"I think for now, in our monitoring, there is nothing wrong if we see the data. At least if we see that the numbers are really low, the public would have more confidence to go out and, you know, enjoy this new normal," he added.
David mentioned about the survey he did when he asked Twitter users if they agree with the decision of the DOH to end the daily COVID-19 bulletins.
"I asked a question on my Twitter, for the Twitter users if they agree that the reporting of data of the Department of Health will no longer be done on a daily basis and overwhelmingly 85 percent, they do not agree," he said.
"It means, at least majority of the users of Twitter, do not agree to reduce the reporting but that is for the Twitter users," he added. Robina Asido/DMS
