TESTING CENTER Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center in Baguio City is among the hospitals that the Department of Health has tapped to hasten COVID-19 testing in the regions. —EV ESPIRITU
BAGUIO CITY, Benguet, Philippines — While no new infection of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been recorded in the city for the last six days and no new patients confined for the past nine days, the real picture of Cordillera’s health security will be known once the government starts testing 700 people a day during the extended lockdown.
According to Dr. Amelita Pangilinan, regional director of the Department of Health (DOH), Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC), one of five provincial hospitals tasked with undertaking laboratory tests for the virus, has been processing as many as 150 tests a day and plans to raise the number to 750.
She said the DOH had requested for more real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) kits, which BGHMC uses to detect transmission.
To date, the Cordillera has recorded 19 COVID-19 cases, 14 of them in Baguio. Six patients have recovered, and one had died in March before tests confirmed her positive for the virus.
Bicol testsThe regional DOH has also asked for additional personnel, among them medical technicians who would conduct the lab tests and pathologists.
In Albay province, Bicol Regional Diagnostic and Reference Laboratory in Legazpi City started testing 30 samples a day on Monday after it passed the proficiency test for COVID-19, according to the DOH regional office. It received its certification from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).
Dr. Ernie Vera, the DOH regional director, said tests would have a standard turnaround time of two days instead of 11 days. Before, swabs from suspected COVID-19 patients were sent to the RITM for testing.
But Vera said the laboratory might test 30 samples a day because it only has one PCR machine. He said the DOH regional office would get more machines to speed up the testing of persons under investigation (PUIs) and high-risk individuals.
“[DOH Bicol] would like to reiterate that at the moment, the laboratory would only receive samples from referral hospitals and other hospitals with COVID-19 patients cleared by the regional epidemiology and surveillance unit,” Vera said.
As of Tuesday, Bicol had recorded 13 COVID-19 cases: four in Camarines Sur province and nine in Albay province. The region’s first fatality, a 66-year-old man from Naga City, was only confirmed positive for the virus three days after his death.
Davao derby
In Mindanao, more people who went to a cockfight in Davao City’s Matina Gallera last month had tested positive.
The cockpit arena is now considered the ground zero of local transmission in Davao City, with some people who attended the derby also bringing the virus back to their hometowns in Mindanao.
The two latest cases to be linked to the Davao cockfight were from Cotabato and South Cotabato provinces.
Cotabato Gov. Nancy Catamco said her province’s first COVID-19 case, a 45-year-old patient, was in an isolation center set up by the provincial government within the capitol compound in Kidapawan City.
The patient’s family members have been placed on 14-day quarantine, she said.
Catamco gave an assurance that those from Cotabato province who attended the Davao derby were all accounted for and being closely monitored by health workers while undergoing isolation in their homes.
In South Cotabato, Dr. Rogelio Aturdido, provincial health officer, said their second COVID-19 case also went to the derby.
The 56-year-old man from Banga town is in stable condition while undergoing home isolation, Aturdido said. His two companions in the derby, he said, had undergone quarantine and showed no symptoms of the disease.
Banga health workers have already started contact tracing.
Dr. Cleofe Tabada of the DOH epidemiology and surveillance unit in Davao region said 427 derby goers had been documented, 46 of them from outside the region.
At least 23 of the 80 COVID-19 cases in the Davao region went to the event, records showed. Of the 23, six had died, including the promoter and host.
—REPORTS FROM VINCENT CABREZA, REY ANTHONY OSTRIA, EDWIN FERNANDEZ AND KARLOS MANLUPIG