NINE vendors of the Agdao Public Market and a health worker tested positive for the coronavirus in a recent surveillance testing by the Davao City Health Office (CHO), Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said on Monday, April 5, 2021.
Duterte-Carpio said in a radio interview that the city started its first surveillance swabbing last week in Agdao, wherein 300 were tested.
The mayor said all of them were asymptomatic, including the health worker from Agdao Health Center, who recently received the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
The mayor said the city also conducted mass swabbing at Bankerohan Public Market on Monday.
"Ang palengke (Wet markets) are known to be areas diin asa daghan ang usually naay (wherein there is a high) exposure [to the virus]," Duterte-Carpio said in an interview on 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio.
The mayor said this was not a reason to shorten the operating hours of public wet markets and close them every Sunday.
According to Executive Order (EO) No. 12 series of 2021, public wet markets shall be open from Monday to Sunday from 3 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The mass testing was part of the city's goal to break the clustering of cases in the city, despite having a downtrend of active cases.
"Sa pagkakaron, makita ninyo pipila lang atong active cases. So ang ginabuhat nato (As of now, we only have few active cases. What we do is) is we try to unahan ang mga (be one step ahead in stopping the) clustering of cases," the mayor said.
Duterte-Carpio recently issued EO 18, which orders for the "heightened surveillance and response" for Covid-19 cases in the city.
According to the EO, "the health response clusters are also ordered to make a regular schedule of surveillance swabbing in high-risk areas without implementing the mandatory home quarantine post-swabbing such as but not limited to: business and commercial establishments (i.e. business process outsourcing, banks, restaurants, etc.); public places (i.e. wet markers, supermarkets, stores, etc.); and government offices."
She said the city based the areas of their target surveillance swabbing on the previous patient's contact tracing or history of exposure.
She added that the city's health response cluster is currently preparing for the name of establishments that will be subjected to a scheduled mass swabbing.
“There should be [an] everyday schedule [in] targeted high-risk areas based on atoang (our) high-risk classification, and based on reports kung asa daghan ang makitang mga (wherein there are many reported) positive cases,” Duterte-Carpio said.
However, the mayor said they will not yet include those second and third generation contacts of those who yielded positive in the city's surveillance swabbing.
The mayor said the ongoing surveillance testing at targeted areas in the city is another challenge.
“Sa pagkakaron (As of now), we will test as much as we can. Mao na siya ang atoang (That is our) direction. The challenge karon is paunsa nato ma-convince ang mga tao nga magpatesting bisan wala pa man sila gibati nga symptoms (how we can convince the people to have themselves tested despite not manifesting any symptoms). Since kaniadto, bisan karon, duna gihapoy resistance ang mga tao nga mag pa-testing (Since then until now, there are still resistance from the people to have themselves tested),” Duterte-Carpio said.
She added, “We are very lucky during our Agdao testing nakakuha ta og 300 kabuok nga nag volunteer or nag-submit sa ilahang sarili nga magpa-testing (we were able to convince 300 volunteers who submitted themselves for testing).”
The mayor is hoping that they would be able to achieve a significant number of tests in their surveillance test.
Duterte-Carpio said they are intensifying their contact tracing as a measure to detect untested individuals who had close contact with a confirmed Covid-19 positive patient or the F1.
F1 are close contacts of existing positive patients, while those close contacts of F1 are tagged as F2 or second-generation contact, and the F3 or third-generation contacts are those who have close contact with F2.
Duterte-Carpio said there is a need to "recalibrate strategies to prevent and control Covid-19 transmission" in the city due to the surge of cases in Metro Manila and other areas in the country, and the emergence of new Covid-19 variants.
The mayor also said the city will also increase its Covid-19 testing capacity to at least about 1,000 specimens a day.
She said the city's health response clusters were instructed to increase their testing quantity from the average 400 to 700 tests per day.
More labs on the way
Duterte-Carpio also said the city is fast-tracking the operation of two more laboratories to help in its intensified contact tracing and testing.
She said these are the Los Amigos Molecular Laboratory and the Brokenshire Laboratory.
This is in addition to the current accredited laboratories catering to Covid-19 tests in the city, namely Southern Philippines Medical Center, Davao One World Diagnostic Laboratory, and Davao International Airport Molecular Laboratory.
This is part of the city’s actions to address the potential “mega surge” of Covid-19 cases.