Cebu City Health: We may not reach target of mass rapid testing
A rapid mass testing is being conducted in Barangay Tisa, Cebu City on Thursday, May 7, 2020. CDN Digital photo | Gerard Vincent Francisco
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Health Officer Daisy Villa said the city might not be able to gather the target number of test samples from the mass rapid testing for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) conducted in the barangays.
On the first day of the testing, only 195 samples out of 2,102 targeted individuals were taken because many of the individuals refused to undergo the test.
“I don’t think so nga maabot nato atong target. Even karon, supposedly makakuha mig 400 sa Mambaling, upat ray nangadto. (I don’t think we will reach the target. Even today, we should have collected 400 samples from Mambaling, but we only had four),” said the city health officer.
Read more: Mambaling breaks 500-mark of COVID-19 cases
Villa said there was not enough samples as of now as only a few residents were willing to have themselves tested for the antibody test.
Residents have reported fear of cross-contamination, of proving positive to the virus and being isolated from their families, or being forced into quarantine.
The city health officer said there was nothing to fear if they proved positive to the antibody test because this would only mean that the individual had already recovered from the infection and most likely immune to the virus.
Mayor Edgardo Labella said that residents had the right not to undergo with the testing, as it was not mandatory.
Read more: Tri-city mass testing to help trace, prevent asymptomatic from becoming ‘super-spreaders’
Yet he appealed to the public to cooperate and take advantage of the free rapid test provided by the city.
Not all local government units (LGU) are being given the opportunity to have mass testings and identify their actual number of COVID-19 cases.
“Swerte ta kay naa tay mass testing. Swerte ta kay makahibaw ta kinsa ang positive. Wala na sa ubang lugar. (We are lucky because we have mass testing. We are lucky because we are capable of knowing the positive cases. That is not an option in other places),” said the mayor.
Labella said he hoped that more residents would cooperate in the mass testing in the next days. /dbs
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