Magalong bares 1,500 samples waiting to be processed at BGHMC COVID-19 lab

BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Benjamin Magalong asked the Department of Health (DOH) to disclose to the public the real situation about the country’s testing status so as not to keep local governments units (LGUs) in the dark waiting for the promised test kits.

In a talk with the local media, the mayor expressed disappointment with the slow development of the department’s risk-based mass testing program which was supposed to give the country headway in its goal to flatten the curve.

“I hope that once and for all the DOH will tell us the real situation rather than keep on promising us that we have numerous test kits arriving. Tell us the real score on our testing capacity and capability so that we at the local government will know what to do and plan it out. Do we still have to wait or do we just act on our own?” the mayor asked.

Magalong said that pending response from the national agency, the city chose to be proactive and had started to work out the purchase of its own test kits.

He said that aside from the 8,100 kits received before, the testing laboratory at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC) got only 3,000 last May 1, and because of the huge backlog, the new deliveries were quickly expended.

He said that, at present, there were still 1,500 samples awaiting tests at the laboratory from the Northern Luzon area, around 350 of which were from the city.

“Baguio has had no new cases for the past days but if you ask me if this is the true situation, I tell you it’s not. We have around 350 waiting for tests and we cannot test them because we don’t have the kits,” the mayor said.

He said Northern Luzon has a population of about 10.5 million and with the 8,100 kits received before, only .07 percent had been tested.

City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit Head Dr. Donnabel Panes reported that in Baguio, a total of 2,200 were tested, as of May 5, for a testing rate based on total population of .62 percent.

However, she said that the more accurate gauge that mass testing was working was not the testing rate, but the positivity rate, which is computed by dividing the total number of positive cases over the total number of tests.

Panes said the standard was that an area should have a positivity rate of 3-10 percent to say that it is testing enough people and therefore showing the true picture on the virus infection in the area.

A University of the Philippines (UP) study identified testing, along with effective contact tracing system, adequate health facilities and a declining trend as basis for the downgrading of the quarantine status.