SENATORIAL aspirant and retired police general Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar was elated with the approval of two antigen self-test kits against coronavirus disease (Covid-19) the public can use at the comfort of their homes whenever they want to get tested.

Eleazar said this proved that the government is listening to the appeal of the people to expand the Covid-19 testing when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finally approved the home use of "Panbio Covid-19 Antigen Self-Test" of Abbott and the Sars-CoV-2 Antigen Rapid Test" of Labnovation Technologies Inc.

These kits can be purchased at FDA-licensed drug outlets.

"Noong magsimula ang surge sa pagpasok ng taon ay ipinanawagan na natin sa gobyerno na gawing mas accessible ang mga test kits upang mas mapabilis ang pagtukoy sa mga taong nahawa ng virus. Bagamat nahuli ng kaunti (We have been calling on the government to make the test kits more accessible since the start of 2022 to easily identify those infected, while it came a bit late), we still welcome this development which will help contain the surge in other regions," he said.

Eleazar stressed the importance of being proactive in responding to the challenges of the pandemic since it will save the lives of more people.

"The FDA approval serves as an empowerment to the people in helping the government contain the spread of the virus. Tiwala naman tayo sa ating mga kababayan kung ano ang kanilang gagawin dahil tiyak ako na hindi nila ilalagay sa alanganin ang kanilang mga pamilya (We trust our fellowmen and we know that they will not put their families at risk)," Eleazar said.

"This is also a call to our law enforcers to continue the crackdown against those selling unauthorized antigen test kits," he added.

Meanwhile, the former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief called on law enforcement agencies to intensify their monitoring on the sale of self-administered antigen test kits that are not yet approved by the FDA.

The FDA said 86 antigen test kits were removed from the market after they failed to pass the evaluation conducted by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine.

"Sa publiko naman, maging responsible po tayo sa paggamit ng mga self-administered test kits. Kapag nagpositibo po sa test ay agad na ipagbigay alam ito sa mga kinauukulan para kayo ay maisolate at mabigyan ng kaukulang atensyong medikal," Eleazar noted.

(To the public, be responsible in using the self-administered test kits. If you test positive, inform the authorities right away so you will be isolated and be given medical attention.) (PR)