The city’s aggressive expanded targeted testing among different sectors to ascertain the state of infection of the population will need additional Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) test kits to sustain the testing until the availability of vaccines to combat the deadly virus.
Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong ordered the city’s Local Finance Committee (LFC) to source out at least P30 million from sources to procure more or less 10,000 reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test kits for the city’s aggressive testing and contact tracing of probable and suspected COVID-19 cases from the cross section of the community.
At present, City Health Officer Dr. Rowena Galpo reported there are more than 19,000 available RT-PCR test kits now being used in the contact tracing and expanded targeted testing of some 10 percent of the different sectors of the community to help ascertain the degree of infection of the virus in the city.
However, the City Mayor pointed out the need for the city to have more than enough stock of RT-PCR test kits for the ongoing contact tracing and expanded targeted testing that is expected to go on up to the end of the year, thus, the need to ensure the sufficient stock of test kits at the earliest possible time.
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According to him, once the supply of available test kits will be at 10,000, it will be considered as alarming, thus, the need for the LFC to source out the required funding for the purchase of the additional 10,000 RT-PCR test kits to sustain the city’s aggressive contact tracing and expanded targeted testing of the different sectors.
The mayor emphasized the importance of being able to stockpile sufficient test kits at the earliest possible time to prevent the possible shortage of test kits when the situation requires the city to conduct more tests among the identified members coming from the different sectors of the city.
Earlier, the health department and the national inter-agency task force for the management of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases identified the RT-PCR test as the gold standard in the conduct of tests for COVID-19.
Magalong underscored that instead of only 1 percent of the city’s population to undergo the required COVID-19 test, the city opted to increase the same to 10 percent of the city’s population should be tested to have a clearer picture of the degree of infection of the virus among the residents.
He asserted the city has to allocate funds for the purchase of the RT-PCR test kits because of the limited supply of the said kits, aside from the insufficient resources of the national government for the said purpose.
The city mayor emphasized the urgency of making funds available for the proposed purchase of additional test kits to allow the city to perform more tests for the health and safety of the public.
By Dexter A. See
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