MANILA, Philippines — Valenzuela City will conduct mass testing for suspected COVID-19 patients in the city on Saturday, April 11, Mayor Rex Gatchalian announced Wednesday.
In his official Twitter account, Gatchalian said all patients under investigation and monitoring, frontliners and overseas Filipino workers from the city would be tested for free.
God is good!!!
The Medical City just got word that Stage 5 accreditation na po ang lab nila.
Meaning po, our city can start na its own localized targeted mass testing.
Lahat po ng pui, pum, ofw, front liners at mga magpapakita po ng symptoms ay papatest natin ng libre!
— Rex (@rex_gatchalian) April 8, 2020
As of Tuesday, Valenzuela City has 36 confirmed cases of the respiratory disease, 14 of whom have died while one patient was able to recover.
It is part of the Philippines’ 3,870 COVID-19 cases, of whom, 182 have died and 96 recovered.
The virus, which originated from Hubei, China, causes mild symptoms such as fever and cough for most people but experts warned that older adults with preexisting health conditions were more vulnerable to the coronavirus, particularly those aged over 60-years-old.