Following Quezon City’s announcement last week that they will be starting community-based mass testing, Manila and Valenzuela cities each announce its LGU’s efforts to conduct localized mass testing.
[READ: QC will now use swabbing booths to test for COVID-19]
Valenzuela City started its free swab testing on Saturday for medical frontliners, returning overseas Filipino workers and residents being monitored for coronavirus symptoms.
[READ: Here’s what will happen when you get tested for COVID-19]
Boasting a swift two-day turnover using LGU-owned testing kits specifically n-COV Assay test kits, the process costs around P5,150 per unit including the processing fee set by The Medical City, the LGU’s affiliated laboratory.
Valenzuela employs a South Korea-made swab test approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration, where authorized medical technicians and nurses from the City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (CESU) collect oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal samples from the patent.
Manila City, on the other hand, reported through its Public Information Office on Monday that the LGU has conducted over 900 tests so far. With the city initiative, the target is to conduct 1,000 swab tests weekly, which will then be distributed for testing to the following hospitals with corresponding testing capabilities:
- Manila Health Department/Delpan Quarantine Facility – 50 tests per day
- Ospital ng Maynila – 20 tests per day
- Sta. Ana Hospital/Manila Infectious Disease Control Center – 30 tests per day
- Gat Andres Bonifacio Memorial Medical Center – 50 tests per day
- Ospital ng Tondo – 17 tests per day
- Justice Jose Abad Santos General Hospital – 15 tests per day
- Ospital ng Sampaloc – 50 tests per day
According to the Manila LGU, all swab tests will be processed either by the Department of Health’s Research Institute for Tropical Medicine or the University of the Philippines Philippine General Hospital.
In its latest COVID-19 bulletin, Manila City has over 300 confirmed cases, less than a tenth of the total number recorded for the whole country, which on Easter Sunday went past 4,000.
COVID-19 response chief Carlito Galvez Jr. on Apr. 2 said massive testing for PUIs and PUMs will commence on Apr. 14, Tuesday.
[READ: DOH releases new classification system for COVID-19 patients]
Last week, the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) announced that after Apr. 14, the fund will only cover COVID-19 patients through a new case rate contrary to its first pronouncement that said it will cover full expenses.
Header photo courtesy of Valenzuela City Facebook page
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