By JOSEPH ALMER PEDRAJAS
The city government of Valenzuela is taking an “aggressive” stance in flattening the curve through the launching yesterday of the country’s first localized mass COVID-19 testing program for its residents suspected to be afflicted with the disease, as well as health workers and other front liners.
Mayor Rex Gatchalian said that the city’s 537 Persons Under Investigation and Persons Under Monitoring are the priority to get tested. They will be followed by the city’s health workers, social workers, other frontliners and returning Overseas Filipino Workers.
“Walang masama to be more aggressive,” Gatchalian stressed, saying it is their way to identify those who are in immediate need of medical aid.
In launching the mass testing, Gatchalian said, they expect that the number of their COVID-19 cases will either surge or that their PUIs and PUMs will significantly dwindle.
“Through this, Valenzuela will have a picture kung ilan lang talaga ‘yung positive namin,” he noted. As of press time, the city has 40 confirmed COVID-19 patients. Three of them have recovered while four died.
According to Gatchalian, the city will be able to conduct 1,000 tests per week.
Considering the few number of their PUIs and PUMs and the number of their health workers and other front liners, the mayor said he expects that all of them will have already been tested once the Luzon’s enhanced community quarantine be lifted at the end of April.
Gatchalian also took pride when he said that Valenzuela’s testing will be faster than the national government’s. He said the city’s tests results will come out two days after they are conducted, as compared to the national government, which usually takes almost a week.
“Sometimes if you’re tested, the anxiety is building up while you’re waiting whether you’re negative or positive,” he noted. “The beauty of this localized, targeted mass testing is that we control the case: The local government owns the test kits and the guarantee of turnaround time is two days…mabilis siya.”
Gatchalian expressed belief that in conducting mass testing, the city government will also save the some of its resources as the city’s manpower and supplies no longer have to attend to the PUIs and PUMs, who are being locked down inside their houses in fear of exposing their neighborhood to risk.
