BY CARLA P. GOMEZ
Bacolod infectious disease doctors met with Negros Occidental officials to discuss probable revisions on local COVID-19 protocols guided by the current Department of Health criteria, former Rep. Alfredo Benitez said yesterday.
The doctors said a second COVID-19 test is not necessary if a person in quarantine is 14 days asymptomatic, Benitez, economic adviser to Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson, said.
They said a COVID positive patient that has been asymptomatic for 14 days can be released without a second test, he added.
It was strongly recommended by the doctors and this will be presented in a meeting of Negros Occidental mayors today, Benitez said.
Once the mayors agree, it will be implemented, he added.
Benitez said he, Lacson and some mayors held a zoom meeting with the doctors because they were concerned about the increasing number of COVID-19 cases and quarantine centers might be overcrowded.
“We were looking for ways on how to have a faster turnover and that is one way,” Benitez said.
COVID-19 patients are sent to hospitals when they have severe to critical symptoms, he said.
Those with mild and moderate symptoms ,that are about 90 percent of the COVID-19 patients, are brought to provincial government healing centers, Benitez said.*
