The swab testing for Carbon Market vendors continues until Friday. | Photo Courtesy of Cebu City EOC
CEBU CITY, Philippines — More vendors in Cebu City’s largest wet market will undergo the pooled swab testing initiative, the regional health office here announced.
Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, spokesperson of the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7), said that the pooled testing for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the Carbon Public Market had been extended until this Friday, October 9.
“Our pooled testing is still ongoing, and will be up to this Friday,” Loreche said.
Loreche said they would be targeting ambulant vendors and stall owners in Carbon Public Market for the pooled testing program in the coming days.
The pooled testing is an initiative of the Project Antibody Rapid Test Kit (ARK). It employs a combination of real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and antibody tests to detect possible COVID-19 infection among individuals.
The United States’ Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines pooled testing as a technique combining respiratory samples from several people and conducting one laboratory test on the combined pool of samples to detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
As of October 4, Loreche said they had collected a total of 837 samples from Carbon Public Market. Of this number, at least eight tested positive.
“Out of the 837 samples, eight samples tested positive. This means that we have a low positivity rate,” said Loreche.
She also said that 47.7 percent of those, who tested positive through RT-PCR tests, yielded IgG when they underwent the anti-body rapid test.
“This (IgG results) meant that the RT-PCR results they had were either false positives or indications that what remained in their health system were viral remnants,” Loreche explained.
“When you have IgG in your antibody tests, it means to say that you are recovering from your infection as your immunity is responding to the virus,” she added.
Cebu City’s Carbon Public Market, which hosts over 4,000 vendors, was chosen as the pilot area for the pooled swab testing initiative.
In earlier reports, the city government targeted to have no less than 2,000 vendors to participate in this newly developed technique of screening COVID-19 infection. /dbs
RELATED STORY: 591 Carbon Market vendors have undergone swab tests