Mayor advises employers not to use RDT for workers

Photo by Associated Press
Photo by Associated Press

DAVAO City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio reminded private establishments and offices anew to refrain from using rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) for their employees.

This is in response to reports that some business owners are using RDT to test their employees.

Duterte-Carpio said in a radio interview on Monday, August 17, 2020, that she had been discouraging the use of RDT to detect if one has the Sars-CoV-2, the virus causing the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

"Posible nga daghan mo'g dili ma-catch nga positive diha sa rapid testing because false negative ang ilahang result (There is a possibility that you won't be able to accurately catch those who are positive with the virus, because rapid testing yields false negative results)," Duterte-Carpio said.

The mayor said that according to the city's medical consultants, the accuracy of the test results using RDT will be determined after a week.

"Posible nga nakatakod naka within one week bago pa man ka nag-positive sa imohang rapid testing kit result. It's very dangerous nga mao kana inyong buhatong screening sa inyohang employees, as well as mag usik-usik mo og kwarta (There is a huge possibility you have already spread the virus within a week before your RDT test is released. It's very dangerous to use this as a health screening tool for your employees. Aside from that, you are wasting your resources)," she said.

Duterte-Carpio said the city had abandoned the use of RDT and would opt to use the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) instead.

The mayor, meanwhile, reiterated the Department of Health's (DOH) advice to conduct symptom screening everyday to their employees.

She said it should not be limited to checking their body temperature only and that there are other symptoms of Covid-19 that should also be checked like sore throat, running nose, hard cough, loss of sense of taste, diarrhea, and high fever.

Any employees who manifest the Covid-19 symptoms should be referred to the company's medical doctor to be assessed and to determine if the employee should be referred for an RT-PCR testing.

Meanwhile, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, through a Joint Memorandum Circular 20-04 series of 2020, revealed that the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) issued a Supplemental Guidelines on Workplace Prevention and Control of Covid-19, which took effect August 15.

Bello said workers in the hospitality and tourism sectors, manufacturing companies, including frontline and economic priority employees, will be required to undergo a regular RT-PCR test to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in workplaces.

"The Covid-19 testing must be at no cost to the employees," Bello said.

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