DUMAGUETE CITY, June 1 (PIA) — Dumaguete City has started to swab test some 5,000 close contacts of the COVID-19 cases in the city as a measure to bring down the surge of cases.
The RT-PCR swab test will help authorities promptly identify, isolate, and treat those who will be found positive for COVID-19.
Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo instructed City Health Officer Dr. Maria Sarah Talla to provide logistics and deploy the required personnel in close coordination with Dr. Socrates Villamor of Department of Health (DOH) Negros Oriental and Dr. Liland Estacion of the Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) so that the testing can be done for all known contacts, both symptomatic and asymptomatic.
The City’s Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases is teaming up with DOH Region 7 and the IPHO to undertake the tried and tested strategy of comprehensive contact tracing, testing, isolation and treatment of COVID-19 cases.
Four teams of medical technologists will be deployed in the barangays with a high number of COVID-19 cases to conduct swab tests for 500 close contacts, relatives, friends, and families of active COVID-19 patients per day.
Villamor said DOH will supply the needed swab kits and devote its regional molecular laboratory to test run all the collected swab samples with the results expected to be released within 16-24 hours upon receipt at the DOH-7 in Cebu City.
Meanwhile, Estacion provided additional medical technologists to meet the manpower requirement and ensure the safe and quick transport of the swab samples to Cebu every afternoon.
Each person who will be swabbed is required to go on quarantine while waiting for the results.
The Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams and the City Health Office will arrange for the quarantine facilities of those who were tested to be released only if they test negative.
Health authorities said the public should expect the number of COVID-19 active cases to increase further because of the testing, but this is needed if only to methodically control the surge at the soonest possible time.
It should be noted that as the capital city and center of trade and commerce in Negros Oriental, people from other towns, cities and neighboring provinces flock to Dumaguete City to do business and buy essential needs, exposing residents to potential carriers of COVID-19. (jct/PIA Negros Oriental with reports from CPIO)-rir
