MANILA, Philippines — Patients going through dialysis treatment in Valenzuela City will be given priority in the city government’s localized mass testing to help them continue with their dialysis in health centers, Valenzuela Mayor Rex Gatchalian said Wednesday.
“We will launch an initiative wherein we are going to test, priority ho sila, all dialysis patients because we treat them as vulnerable communities that must be taken care of. Either way they will have difficulties if naging positive sila,” Gatchalian said in a virtual presser.
(We will launch an initiative wherein we are going to test, they will be a priority, all dialysis patients because we treat them as vulnerable communities that must be taken care of. Either way, they will have difficulties if they become positive.)
“If hindi man sila matest, hindi sila magpapatuloy ng dialysis which will be detrimental to them,” he added.
(If they will not be tested, they will not continue their dialysis which will be detrimental to them.)
Some dialysis centers said they want their patients to undertake COVID-19 testing as COVID-19 exposure will pose a risk to other dialysis patients, Gatchalian said. It may also force the center to be shuttered for disinfection.
“Recently, a lot of dialysis centers have been saying that they want their patients to be tested first before they continue with dialysis,” Gatchalian said.
“If they are a carrier they might infect the person next to them, if there is contamination, they have to shut down the dialysis center and disinfect for a couple of days,” he added.
Valenzuela City Health Office Chief Dr. Jaime Exconde said during the press conference that they will start to test their front liners including medical workers, police officers, barangay officials and other vulnerable communities such as overseas Filipino workers and dialysis patients over the weekend.
Gatchalian earlier said they are expecting to conduct 700 tests per week after receiving test kits produced by its partners, Detoxicare Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory, Inc. and The Medical City.