MANILA, Philippines —The Office of the Vice President wants to assist in the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction testing or swab testing of locally stranded individuals (LSIs) to prevent coronavirus disease (COVID-19) transmission in virus-free regions.
“Iyong opisina namin, tinitingnan namin kung papaano kami makakatulong sa LSIs. Tinitingnan namin, Ka Ely, kung kaya namin na kami iyong tumulong para ma-RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) sila, ma-swab test sila bago lumarga,” Vice President Leni Robredo said over her weekly radio program, BISErbisyong LENI, at DZXL, responding to the issue of infected LSIs.
(In our office, we will be looking into how we can help give LSIs to RT-PCR tests before they travel to their destination.)
“Pero wala din kasi sa amin iyong datos, Ka Ely, eh. Wala sa amin iyong datos kung sino iyong mga bibiyahe. Pero sana gawan ito ng paraan, para hindi na sana kumakalat,” she added.
(But we don’t have the data. We don’t have the data of travelers. But we hope they can address this so the virus won’t spread.)
Robredo floated the initiative after she heard the news that Batanes, which has been COVID-19-free for more than six months, has recorded virus cases last week.
The first case involved an LSI who arrived in Batanes onboard a Philippine Air Force helicopter. The second case also involved an LSI, who tested positive for the virus on Oct. 1.
Robredo hailed the Batanes government for its swift contact tracing efforts which can help prevent the spread of the virus in their area.
“Halimbawa, iyong unang nag-positive, ang kinontact trace nila, 86, 86 na contacts nitong nag-positive na ito. So ang galing. Iyong pangalawa, ang laki din noong kinontact trace nila; kung hindi ako nagkakamali, halos 20. Kapag ganito iyong contact tracing, baka mako-contain natin,” she said.
(For example, in the first positive case, they already conducted contact tracing. 86 close contacts were detected. So it is incredible. The second case has 20 close contacts. If contact tracing is like this, we can contain the virus spread.)