BAGUIO CITY– The local government decided to purchase some 10,000 reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction-based test kits and a RT-PCR machine to help the health department achieve the purpose of mass testing and ascertaining the portion of the city’s population that is infected with the dreaded Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong directed concerned offices of the local government to prepare the required documents that will be used to facilitate the purchase of the test kits and the RT-PCR machine so that the mass testing of the city’s vulnerable population could be realized the soonest, especially that the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC) has been accredited as an independent sub-national testing laboratory.
He said that the purchase that will be done will include the required re-agents and other consumables required to be able to aggressively implement the planned mass testing of the health workers, frontliners and vulnerable sector of the population that possess the symptoms of the highly contagious virus.
City Health Officer Dr. Rowena Galpo said that the local government will be allocating some P10 million to fund the purchase of the 10,000 test kits while another P5 million will be set aside to procure the RT-PCR machine that will be lodged with the BGHMC where it will be exclusively used for city residents.
However, she explained that the local government will still follow the health department’s protocols on the individuals that will be allowed to undergo the test where priority will be the health workers, other fronliners, barangay officials, contact tracers and those who are directly exposed to confirmed COVID-19 patients and the vulnerable population who have symptoms such as fever, cough, colds, diarrhea and difficulty in breathing.
According to her, the supposed mass testing in the city that was earlier scheduled where there will be some 200 test that will be undertaken per day has not yet been rolled out because BGHMC had to work on its over 500 tests backlog from the different parts of Northern Luzon aside from calibrating the 2 PCR machines accessed by the city to increase the capacity of the independent testing center.
Earlier, the health department designated BGHMC as an independent testing center for Northern Luzon and provided it with only 1 RT-PCR machine that is capable of performing some 1,000 tests daily.
Magalong was able to access some 3 additional RT-PCR machines with the help of friends and Science and Technology Secretary Fortunato dela Peña to augment the existing operational machine in the hospital.
Galpo explained that the RT-PCR machine that will be purchased by the local government will be lodged in BGHMC but it will be exclusively used for tests that had been conducted on city residents to speed up the release of the test results that will aid contact tracers in ascertaining the close contacts of those that will test positive for the highly contagious virus.
Galpo underscored that one of the precautionary measures against COVID-19 that should be implemented is the mass testing so that those that will test positive could be immediately isolated to aver the spread of the illness that will create more problems in the future.
By Dexter A. See