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Part 2 (Conclusion)
It was still two days away from Cebu City being placed under Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) and public officials were competing to address public outcry for a more efficient way to distribute quarantine passes.
On March 30, the city government led by Mayor Edgardo Labella held its periodic press conference to provide updates on the status of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the city. It was the second day of the city under ECQ, and the cases at the time were only 20.
In that same media briefing, broadcast on live television, radio and even on social media, the city’s health officer, Dr. Daisy Villa, raised the alarm that the virus could potentially spread to communities urban poor.
“Most of the patients, who tested positive for COVID-19, belong to Class A and B. What we are concerned about (are) are those of Classes C and D, and (those) who live in the areas of the slums. Once this virus spreads there, it would be difficult to contain, “were Villa’s words.
The City Health Department (CHD) contact trace for the city’s first 20 COVID-19 patients was already underway.
Since March 20-30, the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Cebu City has skyrocketed to 1,388 on May 6.
This May, the Cebu city government will participate in a massive “strategic” rapid test together with the cities of Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu under the “Project Balik Buhay” program initiated by the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Visayas (OPAV)
READ: The massive “strategic” tests will be held in Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu
More than 23,000 people in Cebu City have been identified to undergo the test, which is a deviation from standard real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) techniques.
The ‘Balik Buhay Project’ program was formulated in the hope that Metro Cebu’s three largest cities will relax their enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) protocols and the transition to a General Community Quarantine (GCQ) or otherwise known as the ‘new normal ‘on May 21)
Rapid test kits were labeled conduits for existing RT-PCR tests being conducted in Cebu City.
Health experts from the Department of Health in Visayas Central (DOH – 7) called the initiative a new strategy to determine the level of infection in the island’s communities, which in turn could provide the necessary knowledge and data that the managers of formulating policies needed to assess prevalence. ECQ.
Cebu City was the first local government unit in the province to implement ECQ. On March 28, the city’s ECQ effectively halted mass transit and led to the suspension of several “non-essential” commercial establishments.
RT-PCR versus rapid antibody tests
RT-PCR tests require swab samples taken from patients suspected of COVID-19, both through the nasopharynx (nasal) and oropharynx (throat). These samples will be examined with the use of a PCR machine.
For Cebu, the sub-national laboratory (SNL) at Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) can accommodate a daily average of 500 tests. It has started running COVID-19 tests since March 19.
The massive tests carried out in the city of Cebu from April 14 to 15 use RT-PCR laboratory methods. Data from the City Health Department (CHD) showed that a total of 6,389 samples as of April 30 have been analyzed using this technique.
DOH has established that only samples examined using RT-PCR techniques in certified molecular laboratories in the country, such as the VSMMC, can be part of the national COVID-19 patient count.
On April 15, Malacañang purchased rapid test kits to increase the Philippines’ much-needed push to expand its COVID-19 test capabilities. This despite previous warnings from the DOH central office and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that rapid test kits could produce inaccurate results, possibly leading to false negatives.
As a precautionary measure, DOH advised local officials and medical facilities across the country to conduct COVID-19 tests that the results obtained by rapid antibody tests should still undergo additional verification using RT-techniques. PCR.
READ: Rapid Test Kits Get Duterte’s OK Despite DOH Rejection
The Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), the national government’s decision-making body on the COVID-19 crisis, has mandated that scientific evidence should serve as the basis for degrading the ECQ.
READ MORE: IATF: ECQ will remain in Cebu, 8 other areas until May 15
As a result, local officials here in Cebu devised the Balik Buhay Project program, which consists of a step-by-step method of determining whether an area can transition to the “new normal.”
The program will sample 10 percent of a barangay’s population, and these people will need to undergo rapid COVID-19 tests. And examinees will remain at home, regardless of whether their test results showed whether or not they were infected with COVID-19.
But for people who will test positive, they will undergo the “gold standard” RT-PCR method of the COVID-19 test for further verification. They will also be placed in isolation centers, where patients with existing asymptomatic coronaviruses will be housed, while awaiting their official results.
The data collected from the rapid tests conducted will then be analyzed so that local officials can map out which areas of their territories can transition “safely” to the new normal. This is done through a zone labeling classification system.
In Cebu City, the strategic mass rapid test was delayed from May 4 to 6 as local officials continue to eliminate procedures for carrying out such a program.
DOH-7 assured the public that the rapid tests to be used for the Project Balik Buhay program are those approved by the FDA. The country’s consumer products regulatory board authorized a total of 16 types of COVID-19 test kits.
READ: Experts support the use of rapid antibody-based tests
Word of caution
But before this development, experts from the University of the Philippines (UP) behind some of the country’s widely accepted policy documents to respond to the COVID-19 crisis, warned local officials and national government agencies about lifting the ECQ.
READ: “The pandemic is far from over in Cebu” – experts
In a report published April 22, researchers warned the public not to take the pandemic lightly, as they have observed a change in its dynamics, particularly in the age distribution among those infected.
They added that the COVID-19 situation in Cebu “is far from over,” and reiterated these findings and calls for other areas of the Philippines to conduct massive tests in a more recent study conducted on April 30.
Scientists stated that the ECQ in Cebu should remain in place and be strictly implemented “until the spread of the pandemic has been managed.”
“The province was enjoying a flat curve until April 15, when new cases of COVID-19 began to appear. This again highlights the importance of mass testing and available health facilities. If strict protocols are not established, any region or province is susceptible to an outbreak at any given time, as long as the SARS-Cov2 virus still persists, “the study said. / dbd
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