MANILA, Philippines — Quezon City’s community-based testing for COVID-19 infection will start next week, the city’s health officials announced Thursday.
The local government’s health department chief, Dr. Esperenza Arias, said they are looking to start with an initial 1,300 tests in areas with the highest concentration of COVID-19 cases.
As of Thursday, there are 670 people in Quezon City who are infected with COVID-19. Of this, 480 are deemed “active” by the local government as these are patients still undergoing treatment. The rest, meanwhile, are either recuperating, recovered, or dead, according to the local government.
The local health department also noted that most of the city’s COVID-19 cases are in Barangay Batasan Hills, which has 28.
“We need to flatten the curve by testing PUIs and putting them in one of our facilities while waiting for their results,” Arias said in a statement. “We want to avoid a situation where the patient might infect a relative whose immune system is compromised.”
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The initial 1,300 test kits were obtained from the Department of Health while an additional 1,500 test kits would be handed over by the Philippine Red Cross to the Quezon City government next week.
Meanwhile, the city government said it is also looking into purchasing 10,000 swab kits and universal transfer mediums, which will serve as containers for the sample specimens.
Dr. Rolando Cruz, the city health department’s Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit head, said people with COVID-19 symptoms would be tested.
“We will test people with cough and colds, influenza-like symptoms o mga tina-trangkaso (or those with flu), and acute respiratory infection,” Cruz said.
The specimens would then be sent to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) while the city’s partnership with other private institutions for testing capabilities remains pending.
Once partnerships are finalized, local authorities said the waiting time for tests may be reduced to just one hour.
“Sa ngayon (For now), RITM lang ang nagra-run ng tests kaya (is the only one running the tests that’s why) it will take that long. Pero (But) we are setting up partnerships with Red Cross, St. Luke’s, and the Lung Center,” Arias noted
“Those who have symptoms from urban poor communities as well as those who will be tested positive will be referred to our HOPE facilities,” she said.
The Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine is still in effect as DOH recorded a total of 4,076 cases of COVID-19 in the country as of Thursday afternoon.
Globally, the virus already infected more than 1,536,200 people and killed more than 89,885 as of April 9. On the other hand, over 340,175 people have recovered so far from the disease. The World Health Organization has declared COVID-19 a pandemic.
COVID-19 is a respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus or SARS-CoV-2, which outbreak started in China’s Wuhan City in Hubei province in late 2019.
For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.