BY MINKA TIANGCO
Manila Mayor Isko Moreno said the city government needs around P2 million per day to sustain the free coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) testing being offered to both residents and non-residents of the city.
Moreno said the said amount, or around P60 million per month, can help them “maximize” their serology testing machines.
The city government recently opened two walk-in COVID-19 testing centers at Ospital ng Sampaloc and Gat Andres Bonifacio Memorial Medical Center (GABMMC) and two drive-thru testing facilities at Quirino Grandstand and in front of the Andres Bonifacio Monument.
Moreno said around 5,000 people have been tested in these facilities after about a week of operations.
A total of 670 persons who got tested at the drive-thru centers were found to have contracted COVID-19.
Around P4 million from the city government’s budget and P9 million in donations to the city have been spent to sustain their free mass testing operations, he said.
Earlier, the Manila mayor appealed for donations to buy more reagents that are needed to test blood samples taken from patients.
The blood samples are analyzed by the city government’s four serology testing machines which have an accuracy rate of 99.6 percent.
However, those who tested positive for the disease using serology testing must still undergo a confirmatory swab test.
Domagoso stressed that they are not using serology tests as a replacement for the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test hailed as the gold standard to detect COVID-19.
But serology tests are more accurate than rapid tests and are “virtually almost” at the same level as PCR tests, he said.
“Hindi namin siya ginagawang pamalit sa gold standard na PCR test. We are still doing that. But we have to look at the practicality of the situation. Ang dami nang COVID-19 anxiety among our people,” he said.
“With this machine we guarantee some level of confidence, credibility, accuracy. With this machine you can get results in 24 hours. And you can do a mass test in one session,” he added. (Minka Tiangco)
