The Department of Health replaced the terms PUI (a person under investigation) and PUM (a person under monitoring) for COVID-19 on its new classification system for persons being checked for coronavirus disease 2019.
Under Administrative Order No. 2020-0013, the DOH changed the classification to “suspect,” “probable,” and “confirmed.”
According to the new system, the DOH classifies patients with symptoms but remain untested as “suspect,” while those awaiting results are called “probable.”
Meanwhile, patients with positive results from official testing laboratories will be classified as “confirmed” cases.
“The evidence of local and community transmission of COVID-19 necessitated a review on the assessment and classification of individuals with the aim of early detection and laboratory confirmation,” DOH said in the memorandum dated Thursday, April 9.
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New classification for patients screened for COVID-19
SUSPECT
A patient will be classified as “suspect” if they fall under any of the three conditions:
1. The patient has the following symptoms:
– Fever of at least 38 degrees C
– Cough
– Throat Pain
And either of the two:
– Has travel history or lives in community with local COVID-19 transmission within 14 days since the start of symptoms
– Had close contact with a confirmed or probable COVID-19 case within 14 days since the beginning of symptoms
2. The patient has the following symptoms:
– Fever
– Cough
– Difficulty breathing
And is any of the following:
– 60 years old and above
– Has preexisting condition
– Has sensitive pregnancy
– A health worker
3. Patient experiences a sudden onset of lung illness with severe symptoms of unknown origin and needs hospitalization
PROBABLE
A person will be classified as “probable” if he/she was earlier tagged as a “suspect” and has the following:
– still undetermined COVID-19 results
– the test was not done in an official laboratory with RT-PCR test (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, considered the “gold standard” in COVID-19 testing)
– remains untested
CONFIRMED
A person will be regarded as a confirmed COVID-19 case if RT-PCR testing shows a positive result for coronavirus.
Meanwhile, the government’s COVID-19 task force is tracking down about 15,000 individuals who are potential carriers of coronavirus disease.
As of April 14, the number of confirmed cases in the country surpassed the 5,000 mark, which is 5,223. The number of fatalities meanwhile is 335, and recoveries are already 295.