THE Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday said it has over 90,000 coronavirus testing kits distributed at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) and six other health facilities across the country--- San Lazaro Hospital and UP National Institutes of Health in the National Capital Region, Baguio General Hospital and Medical center in the Cordillera, Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Central Visayas, Western Visayas Medical Center in Western Visayas and Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) in Davao, which will cater all tests from Mindanao.
In short, Visayas has two testing centers but Mindanao only has one, and in Davao -- which is eight hours away from Cagayan de Oro and more or less 10 hours away from Caraga region via land travel.
Now we understand why NCR has multiple testing centers. Yes, Visayas has two and we couldn’t agree more. So shouldn’t Mindanao have more too?
Why can’t the Department of Health put a testing center in Northern Mindanao, particularly in Cagayan de Oro? It is strategic, it’s near Iligan and Lanao area, where one of the first cases of Covid-19 in Mindanao was recorded.
As of Tuesday, the DOH-Northern Mindanao said it has 3,320 persons under monitoring (PUMs); 681 in Bukidnon, 166 persons in Camiguin, 513 in Lanao del Norte, 803 in Misamis Occidental, 1,157 in Misamis Oriental, and another 563 in Cagayan de Oro and 431 in Iligan City.
Northern Mindanao also has 293 persons under investigation (PUIs); Bukidnon has 67, Camiguin has 7, Lanao del Norte has 20, Misamis Occidental has 79, and Misamis Oriental has 32. In Cagayan de Oro, the DOH records 55 PUIs and 12 in Iligan City.
So far, DOH-Northern Mindanao captured 13 positive cases of Covid-19, 9 are captured cases from other regions while the other four are residents of Northern Mindanao.
Of the 13 cases, four of them succumbed to Covid-19; three from Lanao del Sur while the other one died in Iligan City.
The DOH-Northern Mindanao also recorded nine PUIs who died while waiting for test results.
Early March, City Mayor Oscar Moreno wrote to Health Secretary Francisco Duque to request for a Covid-19 testing laboratory be set-up in Cagayan de Oro citing the “strategic location of the city in Northern Mindanao”.
Moreno said there is still no reply from Duque, but then again having received a “no reply” could also mean a big fat no.
Whatever the reason why other parts of Mindanao are being skipped should be explained to the public. And it better be really because we have shortage of testing kits and there is no other way to fairly distribute it to the other regions.
Because nobody would want this to turn into another sad story: Mindanao being left out, again.
The only way to get the real health situation of the Covid-19 in the country is if we stop testing only a few people and start working to conduct mass testing. This way we get real numbers and come up with real solutions.
So, where are our testing kits?