Nearly 1,000 Sampaloc, Manila residents to be tested for coronavirus

PRETEST PREPARATIONS Manila Disaster Risk Reduction and Management personnel set up a decontamination booth outside Geronimo Elementary School where suspected coronavirus patients in the Sampaloc district will undergo rapid antibody testing starting on Friday. —RICHARD A. REYES

MANILA, Philippines – Some 1,000 Sampaloc, Manila residents will be tested starting Friday for the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes the coronavirus disease  2019 (COVID-19), during the 48-hour hard lockdown in the district, city officials said.

Four hundred thirty two  individuals will be tested at the Geronimo Elementary School on Friday, and another 500 on Saturday, according to Ospital ng Sampaloc Director Aileen Lacsamana.

“Hindi po sila lahat ay may symptoms. Ang gusto po natin gawin sa mass testing ay i-subject ‘yung mga frontliners, number two, ‘yung household contacts ng mga COVID-19 positive cases [sa testing],” she said in an interview on dzMM.

(Not all of them have symptoms. What we want to do in the mass testing is to test the frontliners and household contacts of COVID-19 positive patients)

Rapid antibody testing kits will be used in the procedure, said Lacsamana. The results will be ready in 10 to 15 minutes.

She said those who will test positive will still have to undergo confirmatory screening and will be brought to a holding area where authorities will identify who among them will have to be brought to a quarantine site in Delpan.

Sampaloc was placed under lockdown from 8 p.m. Thursday until 8 p.m. Saturday following the rise of COVID-19 cases in the district.

The lockdown was imposed “for purposes of disease surveillance, verification or testing and rapid risk assessment in relation to COVID-19,” Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso said.

During the lockdown, all quarantine passes are canceled and residents of the district are not allowed to leave their residences, except healthcare workers, police and military personnel, government employees, service workers (pharmacies, drug stores, and death care service establishments), barangay officials, and accredited journalists.

As of 5 p.m. Thursday, Manila had a total of 547 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

Fifty eight of the patients have died while 63 others recovered.

Another 764 are considered COVID-19 “suspects.”

In Sampaloc alone, 110 have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2—the highest in all districts in Manila—while another 166 were tagged as COVID-19 “suspects.”

GSG