Gordon: Testing should still be a priority
SEN. Richard J. Gordon, chairman and CEO of the Philippine Red Cross, yesterday stressed that testing should still be a priority since it is an important pillar in the fight against COVID-19.
Gordon said that to help stem the further spread of COVID, especially with the highly infectious Delta variant now being the dominant variant, there is a need to further strengthen the country’s testing capacity.
“Testing remains an important pillar in our fight against COVID-19 and should therefore still be a priority,” the PRC head said.
“While vaccines help, testing helps us find who are afflicted with the disease. This enables us to isolate those individuals and give them the necessary treatment depending on their situation,” he added.
This comes after the PRC announced that beginning Sept. 4, RT-PCR testing would be made more accessible, with the reduction of prices of swab test from P3,800 to P2,800 and saliva tests from P2,000 to P1,500.
The World Health Organization also called for further increase the country’s testing capacity.
WHO Country Representative Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe issued the pronouncement as he disclosed that the WHO backs the decision to move to granular lockdowns but reminded that the move should be prompted by accurate and up-to-date data.
“It is critically important that we have validated up to date information on patient numbers, testing, positivity rates, on severity of disease, on the clusters of cases. Where are the clusters? Where do you do the granular lockdowns? Because oftentimes we hear of granular lockdowns happening where people are residing with no investigation where transmissions are happening. It is important to focus on where transmission is happening,” he stressed.
Abeyasinghe also pointed to the need to strengthen the country’s contact tracing system, which he said is the weakest link in the Philippines’ COVID response efforts, since accurate data can only be generated through good, strong contact tracing.
