LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Mayor Romeo K. Salda expressed disappointment over the alleged poor outcome of the aggressive community testing that was conducted by the State-owned Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) in the municipality, saying that members of the vulnerable and high-risk sectors lost the chance to avail of the free reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test.
Based on the reports that reached the local chief executive, a total of 506 individuals were able to avail of the free test offered by the government during the 2-day aggressive community testing that was conducted in the municipality last where only 247 persons were able to submit themselves for testing on the first day while only 259 individuals that reported for testing on the second day.
Earlier, the BCDA allocates some 1,000 free RT-PCR tests that were supposed to be dedicated to the members of the high risk and vulnerable sectors in the municipality during the 2-day aggressive community testing.
He pointed out that information on the conduct of the aggressive community testing was relayed to the businessmen, including those at the vegetable trading post and other private testing centers in the capital town, but the attendees to the testing during the scheduled dates was dismal that might have disappointed the organizers of the event.
However, Mayor Salda claimed that the municipal government is trying to request the BCDA for another schedule of the aggressive community testing probably by the third week of June so that the same will be done to the members of the high risk and vulnerable sectors at the different trading facilities to prevent the further spread of the dreaded Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the municipality.
According to him, people should value the importance of the free RT-PCR test being offered by the government for them to be able to ascertain their health condition and that the same can be realized if they will avail of the aforesaid test during their schedules.
Mayor Salda asserted that it might be difficult to again set a schedule for the conduct of another round of aggressive community mass testing in the municipality because of the very poor attendance of the residents during the recent conduct of the said testing that is why the same should not be repeated as it will surely send a bad impression from the organizers that people in the municipality do not want to be tested.
He explained that La Trinidad has registered the highest COVID-19 cases in the province since the start of the implementation of the Luzonwide lockdown and that local officials do not want the previous situation during the recent surges in the number of COVID-19 cases to be realized in the future as it will be very difficult once the local health system will be compromised and the frontliners will be stressed.
He appealed to the residents of the capital town to fully support the upcoming implementation of similar activities because it is aimed at ensuring their health and safety which is the primordial purpose of the ongoing testing of the huge portion of the population to ascertain those who are infected with the virus for them to be given appropriate medical attention from the health authorities and the facilities. By HENT