Malilong: Still on Covid testing

Malilong: Still on Covid testing

LAST Tuesday, I urged local government units in the region to help expedite mass coronavirus testing in their respective communities, following the example set by the cities of Valenzuela and Quezon.

The process is not easy as the City of Naga learned last month after they purchased a Covid-19 Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) machine along with about 1,000 testing kits for use on their residents. Securing approval to operate a testing center is complicated. An applicant has to go through five stages, each one taking considerable time to complete.

The City Government, through its mayor, Kristine Vanessa Chiong ended up signing an agreement with the Department of Health turning over their equipment and kits to the government agency for “housing” and operation with the assurance that Chiong’s constituents will be “prioritized” in the use of the machines. It is not known if any Naga resident had benefitted from the operation of the city’s equipment since the turnover.

There is a reason for government’s stringent regulations in accrediting testing centers. The testing is a delicate and dangerous process when done by non-experts. Even Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) had to wait for some time before it became a sub-national laboratory. The last stage of the accreditation involves the validation of the test results by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).

Obviously, government wants to protect the integrity of the testing process. It doesn’t take rocket science to recognize the threat posed by an inaccurate reading. A “false negative” report is worrisome. It gives the person a false sense of safety and freedom in mingling with others.

But can’t government expedite accreditation without sacrificing accuracy? Covid-19, still nameless then, surfaced in China in December, multiplying as an epidemic for days. It would have been naive of anyone not to consider the possibility of the disease spreading to other countries, including the Philippines, which has a robust tourism relationship with China. Why have we not prepared for this by hiring and training a pool of expert technicians who can either be deployed to man testing centers nationwide or train others to operate them?

All these are water under the bridge. But the urgent need to test as many people as we can for the dreaded virus remains urgent. We need to identify the carriers to eventually stop the spread of the disease.

The local government units should take a direct hand to get this thing done. They still have choices. They can partner with private hospitals that have duly-approved testing laboratories like what Valenzuela and Quezon did or, as in the case of Naga, with the DOH. VSMMC could still have use for more PCR machines or testing kits. The mayors can always check.

Or they can follow the Marikina model. After fruitlessly waiting for the DOH to approve their application to operate their own testing center, an exasperated Marikina mayor declared that they will start operating tomorrow with or without a permit, invoking the general welfare clause in the local government code and the city charter.

Bickering during this period of national emergency is not the ideal option but where lives are at stake and you’re not getting the attention that you think you deserve, then maybe it is the only way to go.

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