AS THE number of cases of COVID-19 in the country grows, the government must prioritize medical mitigation measures. Not a few have expressed concern that the response in this area is worrisome, if not severely inadequate. Instead of assuring the public, it raises more questions and uncertainty among our people. We expect better delivery of medical services to our kababayans, including effective, comprehensive and rights-based approaches and means in combating the disease. But where are these at present?
The battle with COVID-19 is a race against time, we cannot deal with this sitting down, and the soonest we get to test, trace, quarantine and isolate, the better. It is only then that we can effectively treat and monitor the rising number of people having the disease.
With the public funds realigned and ready for use, this must be maximized for free and systematic mass testing for our people as one of the most practical and scientific ways in combating the disease. When we say mass testing for COVID-19, it means prioritizing testing frontline workers and members of communities where there are already confirmed cases.
It is in our prayers that the locally-developed test kits for COVID-19 be made available for mass testing as soon as possible. The availability of these kits is our hope for early detection. Not only are these cheaper and more accessible, they could also yield results faster. Rapid mass testing can give us fair chance of controlling the rising numbers of those infected with COVID-19.
We continue to reiterate the World Health Organization’s suggestions, and these are:
* expand, train and deploy healthcare workers
* implement systems to find suspected cases
* ramp up production of tests to increase availability
* identify facilities that can be transformed into coronavirus treatment centers
* develop plans to quarantine cases
The Department of Science and Technology announced that at least 120,000 locally-developed COVID-19 test kits will be available on April 4.
Free mass testing will lead to saving lots of lives.
Test, trace, isolate, and treat.
