INTENSIFIED SURVEILLANCE: Dr. Renely P. Tungol, Incident Commander of the Incident Management Team and City Infectious Disease Coordinator, spearheaded the City Health Office in conducting Rapid Antibody Tests among market vendors on June 10, 2020.
At least 100 market vendors and helpers from the city’s new public market have undergone Rapid Antibody Tests on Wednesday as part of the monitoring and surveillance efforts of the local government here.
These individuals were selected based on the strategic areas set by the City Market Operations Division (CMOD) headed by Mila Mila D. Rivera, Market Supervisor II.
“Nag-identify muna kami ng strategic areas sa loob ng public market, and then from those areas kumuha kami ng ilang participants depende din sa dami nila doon. Ganoon ang ginawa natin para distributed ang sample at hindi lang concentrated sa isang area o section ng market. Mostly sa vegetable and wet sections tayo kumuha kasi maraming vendors doon,” she said.
The City Health Office had set their test booth at the market’s covered court where initial RAT was done using capillary blood extraction.
However, Dr. Renely P. Tungol, Incident Commander of the Incident Management Team and City Infectious Disease Coordinator, reiterated that RAT results are inconclusive and should be confirmed with reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test.
“Again, ‘yung antibody test very inconclusive siya. That’s why individuals who will turn out positive in RAT still need to undergo confirmatory test or the what we call RT-PCR test. Ito talaga ang golden standard for testing COVID-19,” the officer stressed.
Individuals with positive results in the RAT will be brought to the city’s isolation facility until they are ready for confirmatory RT-PCR test. While those with negative results will be again tested using RAT after 14 days.
Meanwhile, Tungol reported their plans in preparation for the expected expanded testing on Monday in partnership with the Green City Medical Center.
“Tomorrow may meeting kami with the [barangay captains] para bigyan sila ng instruction na mag-start na sila ng mapping. After mapping, by Monday, if sasabihin ng DOH [Department of Health] go na tayo, yun dire-diretsu na,” Tungol said.
It was on May 29 when CHO began its pilot study on the use of RATs for increased surveillance and response in the city.
Some 500 individuals from the five identified high-risk groups were chosen as a sample to identify the prevalence of COVID-19 infections among groups.
