CEBU CITY, Philippines — The first batch of Carbon Market vendors have been subjected to swab testing on Wednesday, September 30, 2020, the samples of which will undergo a pooled polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing.
The city targets 2,000 stall owners and ambient vendors in Cebu’s largest public market to be tested with their consent so that the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) can identify if there is a presence of community transmission in the area.
READ MORE: Cebu City to pilot pool testing among vendors
Councilor Joel Garganera, the EOC head, said that the testing would allow them to trace any community transmission and isolate the vendors who will test positive to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) immediately.
Since the vendors will be placed under quarantine after being swabbed, they are allowed to assign a relative or hired individual to watch over their stalls or place at the market to continue vending for them.
Read: 400 vendors in Carbon Market agree to undergo swab testing; public hearing continues
Those who refused to be swabbed will still undergo the 14-day quarantine and will not be able to sell again until the last test results of those vendors who allowed themselves to the tested will be released.
There are 41 swabbers deployed by the Department of Health (DOH) at the Carbon Market for the testing that will last until the end of the week.
“Gibuhat nato ni aron makita nato kung COVID-free ba ang Carbon. Ma-assure sad nato ang publiko nga ang mga vendors manindahay didto kay walay COVID,” said Irvin Cabales, the Market Authority head.
(We are doing this to see if COVID-free ba ang Carbon. We can also assure the shoppers that the vendors are safe from COVID.)
As of 3 p.m., the testing continues and the Market Authority office has yet to determine the total number of vendors who have undergone test for the first day of the pooled testing.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the United States, pooled swab testing means combining respiratory samples from several people and conducting one polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test on the combined pool of samples to detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Here are photos of the mass swab testing at the Carbon Market courtesy of the Cebu City EOC:
/bmjo