THE Department of Health (DOH) on Monday, August 9, 2021, urged local government units (LGUs) using rapid antigen tests (RAT) to boost active case finding efforts to submit complete reports.
Although the government has allowed the use of RATs in areas with rising cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire admitted that this poses a data collection challenge as RAT results mostly go unreported.
She said they have been telling LGUs in the past few weeks to submit reports on RATs conducted.
“There should be complete reporting so we can see the overall picture (of the Covid-19 situation) in the country...The report should be complete and timely so we can provide an accurate picture of the situation,” Vergeire said.
An area’s Covid-19 case count impacts on its risk and quarantine classification, which is based on the two-week growth rate and average daily attack rate, among others. The lower the number of cases and rate of increase, the less stringent the quarantine classification is.
The DOH allowed in March 2021 the use of RATs in the NCR Plus, which was then experiencing a surge in infections. NCR Plus is composed of the National Capital Region and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal.
On August 6, Vergeire also announced that RATs may be used in areas placed under Alert Level 3 and 4 to support active case finding efforts.
She said they have already instructed testing laboratories nationwide to include the RAT kits used in its reports. The laboratories, however, use the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test to detect Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
“In our system of reporting right now, we have CDRS and the CDRS (data) are coming from encoded results from all laboratories in the country,” she said.
CDRS refers to the Covid-19 Document Repository System, which collects the testing output of all laboratories. The data collected here are forwarded to CovidKaya, DOH’s epidemiological surveillance system.
To keep track of the RATs used by some local government units (LGUs) and their results, Vergeire said they rely on reports submitted by the LGUs.
“Hindi pa ho s’ya pumapasok do’n sa sistema namin dahil nga local governments ang gumagamit, hindi laboratoryo,” Vergeire said. (These are not yet included in our system because these are being used by the local governments, not the laboratories.)
In March 2021, the DOH said RAT may be used to detect cases in the NCR Plus but it was not to be used for border control, pre-travel testing, workplace screening, or testing of asymptomatic general contacts.
The DOH also stressed that only qualified licensed healthcare professionals in local health offices, health facilities, accredited quarantine and isolation facilities, and certified Covid-19 confirmatory laboratory facilities are authorized to administer the test and interpret its results.
The RAT test kits to be administered should also be registered with the Food and Drug Administration, and validated by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine or other designated institutions.
A rapid antigen test detects the presence of antibodies in the blood, which indicate that the individual was or is infected. It does not detect Sars-CoV-2, unlike the RT-PCR test. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines)