BAGUIO. A 70–year–old vendor still sells ice cream despite restrictions imposed by the City Government during the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ). Leo, the ice cream vendor said if he doesn’t work, his family would go hungry. (Photo by Jean Nicole Cortes)
BAGUIO. A 70–year–old vendor still sells ice cream despite restrictions imposed by the City Government during the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ). Leo, the ice cream vendor said if he doesn’t work, his family would go hungry. (Photo by Jean Nicole Cortes)

Baguio City lacks test kits

AS THE pandemic progresses, lack of confirmatory test kits besets the mountain city.

On Monday, May 11, Mayor Benjamin Magalong said Baguio City has cancelled the order for University of the Philippines (UP) test kits due to quality control issues and the 4,000 rapid test kits donated by a mall was also deemed unusable by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).

With the lack of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) confirmatory tests, Baguio City Health Services Office (CHSO) Dr. Rowena Galpo said the ideal testing of 35,000 of the population cannot be done immediately and assessed testing period may extend until the end of the year.

“We are doing the rapid tests; however, we have said that the PCR test is the gold standard and the RDT tests are a little inferior to the PCR,” Galpo said.

The city health officer explained there are also 193 active suspect coronavirus disease (Covid-19) patients who have yet to undergo confirmatory PCR tests and are in the different hospitals and community undergoing home isolation, with some already administered a throat swab currently awaiting results.

All suspect cases are accounted for in the different barangays and can be found in the city’s real time tracker along with cases of those probable and confirmed infections.

CHSO records also show there are now over 600 individuals completing a 14- day quarantine with 5,094 done with the self-imposed isolation period as of Monday, May 11.

There are three isolation facilities in the city with the Teachers’ Camp facility reserved for OFWs and at the same time being prepared for the eventual return of residents coupled with the Lindi Hotel containment area.

Galpo said the Sto. Niño Hospital is now certified by the health department and will open on May 18, complete with staffing, supplies and other infrastructure requirements fulfilled.

Galpo said the 6,000 rapid test kits from the DOH which arrived last week have yet to be used by the BGH.

“We have seen in the news that 6,000 testing kits have arrived, however, we are not yet testing due to backlog of the BGH, I don’t know the reason but it is (mainly) about the PCR machines being calibrated and lack of manpower,” Galpo said.

Galpo and Magalong dialoged with the City Council during this week’s regular session and appraised the legislative body of the status of the city in terms of testing and facilities in preparation for the transition to general community quarantine next week.

The mayor said a request was made to the national government for 30,000 rapid tests but will be distributed other parts of Luzon and will not be exclusive to the city.

Councilors were alarmed at the turtle’s pace by which the health department is testing suspected Covid-19 patients as well as the lack of confirmatory tests available for the city to use.

Councilor Betty Lourdes Tabanda raised concern after the last test was recorded end of April because there are no testing kits available.

“This is why we are worried because we cannot present the real situation. There might be several who are infected but we do not know,” Tabanda said.

Galpo said three companies have been streamlined for the purchase of the 10,000 rapid test kits needed by the city and was submitted to the DOH for its evaluation.

The three proposals are now being compared to determine what is most advantageous to the city and is on the process of being fast tracked.

At the moment, there are four PCR machines at the BGH with two functioning still awaiting calibration of the other two which started almost two weeks ago.

Related Stories

No stories found.
SunStar Publishing Inc.
www.sunstar.com.ph