IT is indeed true that the ultimate step our national health system can take in the fight against the coronavirus is mass testing of the public. But this is an impossibility at this time. We simply do not have the means – the facilities and materials – to test every one in this country of 107 million.
We now have 100,000 testing kits and we expect more to arrive, but these are not enough to conduct mass testing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said this weekend. The Department of Health said that 2,686 tests have now been conducted in the country as of Sunday afternoon. The tests have shown that there are now 1,418 COVID-19 cases in the country. The death toll is now 71, mostly elderly people suffering from various illnesses such as hypertension, diabetes, and cardiac ailments. Recovered cases number 42.
President Duterte supports a move for mass testing, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said, as soon as the country has all the facilities needed for it. Meanwhile, the tests are being administered to the most urgent cases, in particular, those who have had contact with confirmed COVID-19 cases and exhibit such symptoms as fever and throat difficulties.
There has been some controversy over the testing of some officials ahead of more meritorious cases. But the rule has generally been followed – only those urgently in need of testing because of overt symptoms and circumstances – have been tested.
For most of the people in the country, the best thing to do is to follow the government’s restrictions on movement and distancing between people. This is the goal of the community quarantine in Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon. Many local governments in the rest of the country have adopted similar measures.
But the ultimate precaution is one which only the individual citizen can take. Each one must be constantly on the alert about maintaining a physical distance of about a meter from another person, because the COVID-19 virus is known to travel in droplets in the breath of an infected person. At every possible opportunity, in an office or in the home, it is best to wash the hands thoroughly with soap and then finish with some alcohol.
The government quarantine coupled with individual safety measures should deprive the virus of the means to jump from one victim to a new one. With everyone doing his part, we should see the number of reported coronavirus cases drop throughout the country.
As soon as we receive more testing kits in the country, we can move towards the ideal of mass testing for everyone in the country.
