THE government is now eyeing the mass testing of 6,000 to 10,000 suspected carriers of novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in Metro Manila before considering a “selective quarantine” in Luzon.
During an online press briefing on Monday evening, the chief implementer of the government’s national policy on Covid-19, Carlito Galvez, said the mass testing is among the conditions they have set for relaxing the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Luzon.
He said the mass testing in the National Capital Region (NCR) has already started in Quezon City, Valenzuela and Manila.
“Once we completed the large-scale testing in the priority areas in NCR and other regions we will be able to satisfy the implementation of our strategy to detect, isolate, and treat the [Covid-19] patients,” Galvez said.
“An aggressive targeted testing and contact tracing will be our game changer [in government efforts against Covid-19],” he added.
Ultimately, he said, their goal is to localize the fight against Covid-19, which will mean local government leaders should be able to effectively implement the national strategy against Covid-19 and avoid a possible “second wave” of the virus or another surge of new Covid-19 cases in the country.
Localized quarantine
He recognized the local government units (LGU) of the cities of Manila, Valenzuela, Marikina, Pasig, Baguio, as well as that of Davao, Caraga and Bicol region for strict, but orderly implementation of the said initiative.
“LGUs should be the ones to lead in efforts to flatten the curve in their respective areas,” Galvez said.
To boost the capacities of LGUs to contain the pandemic, he said the Department of Health has raised from the initial six, to 15, the number of medical facilities which test Covid samples.
Likewise, he also said a total of 2,670 quarantine facilities with 165,756 bed capacities were also set up nationwide for Covid-19 patients.
Currently, these facilities have 645 probable Covid-19 cases at 900 suspected cases, undergoing treatment.
Galvez said the six large quarantine facilities located within or near NCR, which have a bed capacity of over 2,000, are expected to become operational this week.
“This will be separate from the Covid-referral hospitals, which have an-830 bed capacity,” Galvez said.
WHO recognized
The “selective quarantine” is being pushed by some business leaders to minimize the business disruptions caused by the ECQ implemented because of Covid-19.
While it negatively affected business operations, Galvez said the ECQ has been effective in significantly slowing down the spread of Covid-19.
Citing the studies conducted by experts from the University of the Philippines (UP), he said Covid-19 cases would have shot up to 140,000 to 550,000 cases from April to June without the ECQ.
He said the government’s prompt implementation of the ECQ starting from March 17, 2020, has been lauded by the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for the Western Pacific Takeshi Kasai.
The ECQ was supposed to be lifted on April 13, but was extended up to the end of April to give government more time to improve nationwide testing capacities and set up more quarantine facilities.