LGUs should maximize COVID-19 testing – Gordon
Local government units (LGUs) will have to force their constituents to undergo tests if the country wants to achieve within a year the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation to have 13 percent of the population tested for the coronavirus 2019, Senator Richard Gordon said yesterday.
“The solution I am proposing is that the local governments, through the DILG (Department of the Interior and Local Government), push their constituents particularly in crowded areas, congested areas, and where COVID has been there to force test the folks out there,” he said during an interview over CNN Philippines.
Gordon, who is also the chairman of the Philippine Red Cross, reminded that the WHO has recommended that each country get to test 13 of their respective population.
“We are only about two percent right now,” Gordon lamented.
“You have to separate the positive people from the negative of the population so the virus cannot find hosts to attack,” he explained.
So far, based on samples received by the Philippine Red Cross, Gordon said Mandaluyong City has done this and was able to test 6,706 persons.
“Mandaluyong has already achieved its target of 13 percent. Kudos to the mayor of Mandaluyong [Carmelita] 'Menchie' Abalos because she has already achieved 13 percent,” he said.
On the other hand, Gordon said other cities in Metro Manila continue to lag behind based on samples tested by the Philippine Red Cross.
“If we do 22,000 tests a day, we can have it in 80 days,” said the senator regarding testing of 1.7 million persons in Metro Manila, which is 13 percent of the entire population of the
National Capital Region (NCR).
“In the case of the Philippines, we will have to test 46,000 tests a day for 310 days or almost a year,” he pointed out.
Gordon has assured that the Philippine Red Cross has already the capacity to test 22,000 persons a day in Metro Manila and will soon hit the ability to test 46,000 persons a day in the entire country.
“Red Cross has acquired all the machines and the laboratories are built already,” he noted.