Following the advice of experts based on this finding, the agency updated its protocol to allow doctors to clear infected but asymptomatic people to go home after that period, Health spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire announced Friday in a media forum.
“As long as the patient does not exhibit symptoms at all, three days na, and naka-reach na rin sya ng 10th day nya nung sakit nya, maaari na syang i-clear ng kanyang physician na pwede na syang umuwi,” Vergeire explained.
[Translation: As long as the patient does not exhibit symptoms at all, if it has been three days, plus they have reached the 10th day, the physician can clear the patient to go home.]
A similar criteria was published in the World Health Organization website.
The DOH earlier required that a patient should test negative for the virus twice in a row, and results must be from samples taken 24 hours apart.
But studies show that reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction or RT-PCR test, considered as the gold standard, cannot determine if a person is infectious or not, Vergeire said.