Negros Occidental to push through rapid antigen test rollout amid DILG’s stand to defer

PROVINCIAL consultant Albee Benitez has confirmed to SunStar Bacolod that the mass testing for Covid-19 using rapid antigen test kits will push through in Negros Occidental this weekend.

He said a total of 16,500 antigen test kits provided by the Department of Health (DOH) and provincial government are now ready for use.

Benitez made the statement after Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG)-Western Visayas Director Juan Jovian Ingeniero recommended that the proposal of the province to use rapid antigen test needs to be further studied and approved.

Ingeniero said that on October 5, 2021, Provincial Incident Management Team (PIMT) head Zeaphard Gerhart Caelian inquired from the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force whether the plan of the province to conduct an Enhanced Prevent-Detect-Isolate-Treat-Reintegrate (PDITR) Rapid Response Activity using the rapid antigen test on October 8.

Ingeniero, in his reply to Caelian on October 6, emphasized that the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test remains the standard diagnostic test for Covid-19 or in determining the presence of Sars-CoV-2.

“We will recommend the local government unit's (LGU's) proposal to the DOH and Health Technology Assessment Council (HTAC) for further study and appropriate approval or recommendations,” Ingeniero said.

He added that “pending the approval from the DOH and HTAC, we highly encourage the LGU to defer from conducting the said activity.”

“The HTAC does not recommend the use of rapid tests for indiscriminate use in mass screening, for return-to-work clearance and for Covid-19 diagnosis in individuals with low index of suspicion like asymptomatic and no history of exposure,” the DILG official said.

The Provincial Government of Negros Occidental will conduct mass testing of residents as part of its efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19 on the populace to decongest hospitals and have a pro-active approach to the fight against the virus.

The province was noted to experience a surge in cases since September. It logged 4,554 active cases as of Wednesday, October 6.

As this developed, five cities and four municipalities in Negros Occidental will be covered in the rapid antigen testing rollout to be conducted by the provincial government beginning this Saturday, October 9, to speed up its contact tracing efforts as part of the campaign against the further spread of Covid-19.

These are La Carlota City, Talisay City, Himamaylan City, Kabankalan City and Silay City, and the towns of Pulupandan, Binalbagan, Toboso, San Enrique and Don Salvador Benedicto, Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said.

Lacson, in a memorandum order he issued Wednesday, said this is just an initial list because the PICMT will continue to evaluate the effectiveness of this measure.

He said the PIMT may propose the inclusion of additional LGUs depending on the arising needs.

Officials of the LGUs that were included in the rapid antigen testing rollout were ordered by the governor to isolate those individuals who will yield positive results for coronavirus.

"They should be isolated right away although they will not be counted to the daily cases pending guidelines from the DOH," the official said.

Lacson stressed that only DOH-approved and recommended rapid antigen test kits should be used.

He said the testing will be conducted within the LGU level with training and support provided by the Provincial Health Office (PHO) in coordination with the DOH for licensing and accreditation purposes.

Lacson added that all city and municipal health offices should provide an inventory of their licensed medical technologists with training status to the PHO.

Positive test results should be encoded by the LGU to the antigen test report template under their local licensed and participating laboratories within 24 hours with daily totals and initial information to be submitted not later than 4 p.m.

Provided test kits will primarily be for use on close contacts of confirmed Covid-19 cases with those who are asymptomatic and be reevaluated with rapid antigen test within 48 to 72 hours from the release of an initial negative result, Lacson said.

Close contacts of Covid-19 patients who manifest symptoms shall be subjected to the same rapid antigen testing, or reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test if testing capacity permits based on the discretion of the local health office, he said.

Lacson also said symptomatic individuals who tested negative for coronavirus after a second rapid antigen test following the 48 to 72 hours from the release of initial negative result shall be discharged after completion of 10 days isolation inclusive of, at least, the last three days of being asymptomatic.

For close contacts residing in the same house, the governor said they will also be subjected to rapid testing and those who will yield negative will be retested in five days.

However, even if they will be tested negative for Covid-19 irus after the retesting, they will still undergo confirmatory evaluation within 48 to 72 hours, he said.

Testing will be allowed for people from an area with a high positivity rate average over a seven-day period and those residing in closed or semi-closed institutions, crowded areas, with presumptive of confirmed Covid-19 outbreaks.