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Manila, Philippines (Updated 3:29 pm) – More than six months after the country’s pandemic-induced community quarantine, the Philippines still reports thousands of cases a day.
Despite this, the Duterte administration insists on a further reopening of the economy, with major tourist spots such as Baguio city and the island of Boracay starting to receive visitors this month.
The Boracay Interagency Task Force (BIATF) said last week that it would require tourists to undergo hyssop tests before visiting the island.
Baguio also requires tourists, limited for now to those in the Ilocos region, to undergo reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing. However, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III announced last week that the city will also test the use of rapid antigen tests to determine if it can be adopted for official use.
Following this announcement, there are now three different types of COVID-19 tests approved for varying degrees of use in the Philippines. But what are these tests and how are they different?
The RT-PCR test
A medical worker takes a blood sample from a Quezon City resident yesterday as part of Project ARK’s ongoing mass rapid testing initiative in the city in partnership with Mayor Joy Belmonte. THE STAR, archive
The reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test is considered the “gold standard” in COVID-19 testing.
According to the United States Food and Drug Administration, RT-PCR tests are a type of diagnostic test that detects the genetic material of the virus. Use nasal and throat swabs to diagnose active coronavirus infection.
The swabs are shipped to the labs and the results are usually available the same day.
“This test is very accurate and generally does not need to be repeated,” says the US FDA website.
However, RT-PCR tests cannot detect past COVID-19 infections.
All 138 COVID-19 testing labs approved by the Department of Health use RT-PCR test kits.
Last week, the Undersecretary of Health, María Rosario Vergeire, said that the department recommended the issuance of an executive order to reconcile the variable prices of RT-PCR tests, which can reach up to P12,000. She said that although there is a law that requires a maximum price for medicines; it does not cover the cost of diagnostic tests and professional fees.
In a message to reporters, Vergeire said there is still no proposed maximum price for the swab tests. The health official added that small surveys will be carried out, as well as consultations with experts and the commerce department to determine the price range.
The rapid antibody test
A medical worker takes a blood sample from a resident in Quezon City
Unlike RT-PCR tests, rapid antibody tests are not diagnostic. Rapid antibody tests cannot diagnose active coronavirus infections at the time of testing or show that a patient does not have COVID-19.
Instead, it detects the presence of antibodies in the blood of people who are believed to have contracted COVID-19. According to the US FDA, the test shows whether the patient has been infected with coronavirus in the past.
In August, medical organizations in the Philippines raised the alarm about the use of rapid antibody tests for detection in the business sector, saying it may have created a false sense of security that contributed to the spread of COVID-19 in the country.
In a virtual briefing held the same month, Usec. Vergeire said that rapid antibody tests must be used properly to be effective.
The antigen test
A health worker in protective clothing performs a Covid-19 antigen test on the new coronavirus on September 23, 2020 in Vienna, on the sidelines of the Austrian Media Days. APA / AFP / George Hochmuth
Like RT-PCR tests, antigen tests diagnose active coronavirus infections and use nasal or throat swabs.
Antigen tests have faster turnaround times, according to the US FDA, and results take up to an hour or less. The agency adds that while positive antigen test results are “very accurate,” negative results may need to be confirmed by an RT-PCR test.
This means that antigen testing cannot “definitively rule out” active COVID-19 infection. “Antigen testing is more likely to miss an active coronavirus infection compared to [RT-PCR] testing, “the FDA said.
In early September, the COVID-19 working group adopted a recommendation from the Department of Transportation to use antigen testing to detect travel on domestic flights. However, after the WHO advised against the use of antigen tests for border screenings, the DOH said it would revise the guidelines for their use.
A week later, DOH reported that an antigen test kit made by a South Korean company, included in the WHO emergency use list, failed the evaluation of local researchers.
Last week, Duque announced that the city of Baguio was chosen to test the use of antigen tests, citing its “model government” in handling the spread of the virus.
“This city will be open to any decision by the health department to further enhance prevention, detection, isolation, treatment and reintegration efforts to combat the spread of the virus,” said Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong, also the tracking czar. of country contacts.
The city government will bear the cost of the pilot test estimated at P1 million. Baguio began accepting visitors from the Ilocos region with negative RT-PCR test results as of October 1.
On Monday, the WHO announced that some 120 million rapid tests for COVID-19 will be available to the poorest countries at $ 5 each, if the organization can find the money. The previous week, WHO issued the first emergency use list for a quality antigen-based rapid diagnostic test (RDT), with others expected to follow.
The state of testing in the Philippines
The latest data from the health department shows that there are now 314,079 cases of COVID-19 in the country, more than 54,000 of which are active. The death toll is 5,562.
The DOH has registered 3,563,303 samples analyzed as of September 30. This is approximately 3.2% of the country’s population. The country’s cumulative positivity rate is 10.3%, according to the health department.
On Friday, the Philippines was listed by the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center and is cited by Worldometers as the 20th country with the most COVID-19 cases in the world. The Philippines also has the highest number of cases in Southeast Asia.
According to Statista, a trading data platform, among the 31 countries most affected by the coronavirus, the Philippines ranks 25th in the number of tests performed. The data platform said that the Philippines alone has conducted just 33,772 tests per million of its population.
By contrast, Israel, ranked 24th in most cases in the world according to Statista, tops the list for most tests performed, having administered 380,272 tests per million of its population. – with reporting from Gaea Katreena Cabico and The STAR
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