Screening nets 4
• Suspected cases at Agdao market sent to SPMC for confirmatory tests
FOUR INDIVIDUALS failed the initial tests conducted by the city government on vendors and workers of the Agdao Public Market.
“Four of them failed the health screening,” Mayor Sara Duterte said in her radio program yesterday, adding that 464 individuals were tested yesterday.
She clarified that the health screening did not only involve the rapid diagnostic test kits but also face-to-face interviews to determine if they also manifested symptoms. The health workers were on the lookout for flu-like symptoms like runny nose, cough, and fever. They were also asked if they were in direct contact with confirmed positive patients, as well as their travel history.
“It’s called a health screening, either you pass or fail. If you fail, you go to the Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) testing in SPMC (Southern Philippines Medical
Center),” she added.
Dr. Josephine Villafuerte, head of the City Health Office, said during an interview with Radyo
Patrol Davao, that they planned on testing more than 1,000 this week based on the contact tracing.
“We would no longer accommodate walk-in (patients). If they will not be tested, they won’t be allowed to sell inside (the wet market),” she said.
As of 8 a.m. yesterday, Davao City recorded 18
new cases, bringing the total to 253. Of that number, 116 were considered as active positive cases, while 111 have recovered. Meanwhile, the death toll remained at 25.
But Duterte said the rising number of confirmed cases should not come as a surprise. She said the city and health workers have ramped up the number of swab tests every day. “We also established a protocol to determine who are candidates for swabbing,” she said.
“It’s either we will send them to the SPMC or have them swabbed at our health center,” the mayor added. “Then we will wait for the results. That is the process.”
She said that they will also push for case finding in the communities, either collecting random samples or identifying suspected cases who might have close contacts with confirmed positive patients.
The Southern Philippines Medical Center would have four RT-PCR machines, which utilize reverse transcription to detect SARSCoV2. The results can be released from three hours to eight hours, depending on the volume of the backlog.
For now, however, the testing capacity for Davao City is limited so they have to exercise prudence in choosing the candidates. “We prioritize those with exposure, symptoms, or those without exposure but exhibiting symptoms,” Duterte said.
Hopefully, she said, Davao City could increase the testing capacity to 1,000 a day.