Lacson warns COVID-19 to spread faster if mass testing not done ASAP

MANILA, Philippines – The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak is bound to spread faster and affect more people in the Philippines if the Department of Health (DOH) does not change its strategy insofar as testing is concerned, Senator Panfilo Lacson warns on Friday.

According to Lacson, DOH officials including Secretary Francisco Duque III should understand that when people call for mass testing, it does not mean testing all Filipinos, but only those who may possibly contract the latest coronavirus strain.

“When we say mass testing, we do not refer to all the 100-plus million Filipinos. It’s only the most vulnerable: those over 60 years old, which constitutes not even 10 percent of the entire population; those who are exposed; and those with symptoms,” the senator said in a statement.

“If the DOH does not change its way of handling the crisis, I hate to say, we may be overrun by COVID-19 faster than we can imagine,” he added.

Lacson also claimed that Duque’s view, that the country is not yet ready to do mass testing, differs from the opinion of several doctors that the senator has talked to.

“DOH Sec. Francisco Duque III may not be very responsive when he says mass testing is not possible because there are not enough testing kits. Besides, I asked doctors who are knowledgeable about antibodies and viruses and all the other technical terms in the medical field. Their opinions mostly differ from those of the Secretary of Health,” Lacson said.

“The rapid test kits can still be useful according to its specificity… Testing of all symptomatic and those who are high-risk is ideal. This is where the rapid test kits come in. The rapid test kit will identify the positives early so that they can be isolated to prevent infection spread,” he explained.

Last March 20, DOH Undersecretary Rosette Vergeire said that there is no need for mass testing of possible COVID-19 patients, but at that time, there were only 217 COVID-19 cases, with 17 deaths.

As of Friday, the entire Luzon is still under an enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) due to the rising COVID-19 cases.  Health officials said that there are 707 patients infected, 45 of which have already died while least 28 have recovered.

Lacson urged government to provide leeway to rapid testing kits that were donated by other countries, as these may still prove useful even if medical experts say that the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing method is more reliable.

“However, this is not to say rapid test kits as a business deal may be allowed. On the other hand, such kits donated from abroad – and even those purchased by local businessmen who will or have donated the same to local government units to help achieve mass testing – should be given some leeway, as long as authorities properly supervise or at least give enough information about their use and usefulness,” he said.

“True, the test using the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) is more accurate and reliable. But how many do we have? How many have the expertise to operate, assuming that we have enough PCR machines?” he added.

Around the world, over 524,000 COVID-19 cases have been recorded, while 23,592 patients have died, and another 111,100 patients have recovered.

COVID-19 is a respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus that first emerged in China’s city of Wuhan in Hubei province in late 2019.

The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses named the novel coronavirus as SARS-CoV-2.

Coronavirus is a family of viruses, which surfaces have a crown-like appearance. The viruses are named for the spikes on their surfaces.

EDV