A health worker (R) puts a swab into a tube after collecting a sample for COVID-19 coronavirus testing in Gombak on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur on April 22, 2020. (Photo by Mohd RASFAN / AFP)
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) on Monday, September 7 encouraged local government officials to convince residents to have themselves tested for the coronavirus.
The agency made this call following reports of several close contacts of previously confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) refusing to undergo swab tests.
READ MORE: Cebu City EOC renews warning on swab test refusal, eyes stricter rules
“We are suggesting our LGUs (local government units) to encourage their residents to have themselves tested for COVID-19,” said Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, spokesperson of DOH-7.
Loreche said local officials should be able to convince their constituents to have themselves tested for COVID-19 as part of the government’s efforts to sustain the gains Central Visayas had made in the past two months.
“Knowing whether the person is positive or negative (of SARS-CoV-2), our government and decision-making bodies will be guided in their next steps,” explained Loreche in a mix of Cebuano and English.
On Monday, DOH-7 also announced that Central Visayas was able to put the COVID-19 outbreak here down to manageable levels.
READ MORE: DOH-7: Central Visayas flattens COVID-19 curve
The region’s critical care utilization rates and numbers on COVID-19 patients may have improved but Loreche said they observed a ‘slight decline’ in the number of swab samples collected since August.
However, the DOH-7 official assured that the decrease in the swab samples processed for COVID-19 detection presently would not have any ‘significant impact on the region’s flattening of the curve’.
“If you look at the numbers of the swab samples we received, there’s a slight decrease but based on our observation, they don’t really have any significant impact,” said Loreche.
As of August, DOH-7 reported over 100,000 unique individual tests conducted in all molecular laboratories in the region accredited to carry out real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests for COVID-19. /dbs