DAGUPAN CITY — None of the workers in high-risk industries who underwent rapid testing on Friday tested positive for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Dr. Ophelia Rivera, the city’s focal person for COVID-19 cases, said 267 workers who volunteered for testing were all “non-reactive.”
Many of them were vendors, drivers, security guards, and store workers.
Ambulant fish vendor Maricel Erfe, 33, took time off from working to have herself tested for the coronavirus.
“We have to prioritize this testing because we’re interacting with so many customers every day. We are dealing with an unseen enemy so we have to make sure that we’re healthy,” said Erfe, a mother of four. She also tested negative for the virus.
The city government is also conducting a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test for front-liners and has so far swabbed 1,300 people. Fourteen of them tested positive for the coronavirus.
Mayor Brian Lim said the latest 364 specimens also tested negative for the virus as confirmed by Philippine Red Cross laboratory results.