By Joseph Almer Pedrajas
Valenzuela City Mayor Rex Gatchalian on Friday night called again on the Department of Health (DOH) to “revisit” their mass testing protocols after two more residents, who are no longer included in the DOH’s new case definition, turned out positive for coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Valenzuela City Mayor Rex Gatchalian (Rex Gatchalian official Facebook page / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
“DOH, please revisit your protocols on not including the PUMs in the swabbing protocols. Our new set of results came back and 2 out of the 8 PUMs we tested yielded positive results. That's 25 percent,” Gatchalian wrote on Twitter.
The city mayor expressed his concern that by following the DOH’s protocols, local government units might “have let these people go untested.”
As of Friday night, seven residents have already been discovered positive for COVID-19 despite not showing any symptoms. This came after the city launched its mass testing program.
According to Gatchalian, these are the residents who were previously called persons under monitoring (PUMs). However, in DOH's new case definition, they are no longer considered as possible virus carriers.