By Minerva BC Newman
CEBU CITY— Cebu City started its strategic community mass rapid testing for COVID-19 in the barangays of Inayawan, Basak San Nicolas, and Basak Pardo on Wednesday as its initial go of the Project Balik Buhay (PBB) based on the guidelines under Executive Order (EO) #75 on the extraction and processing of rapid testing samples in Cebu City.
(Cebu City Mayor Edgar Labella via Facebook / MANILA BULLETIN)
According to Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella, there are 14 teams composed of Barangay Health Workers (BHWs) and Barangay Health Emergency Response Team (BHERT) that are conducting the mass testing.
Labella said the teams randomly and strategically identified individuals to designated extraction sites in each barangay and only one representative from the chosen household to undergo the rapid testing which involves the extraction of blood samples.
About 20,363 families from the 80 barangays in Cebu City shall be subjected to mass testing under the PBB. Labella said that after the rapid tests, all tested individuals are to go on strict home quarantine while waiting for the results.
Those found probable positives shall be informed and scheduled for confirmatory swab sampling and PCR Testing.
"These kinds of tests are needed now because confirmed COVID-19 cases in Cebu City as of May 6 has now reached 1,388 with 30 negative and 7 deaths," the mayor said.
Barangays Mambaling, Suba, Luz, and Labangon have high COVID-19 cases with Mambaling having the highest number at 539; Suba at 126, Luz at 193 and Labangon at 125.
Labella, in his Facebook post, said that on May 6 alone, 19 COVID patients from Barangay Carreta were admitted in the Barangay Isolation Center (BIC) and are closely monitored and treated by the Cebu City Health Department (CCHD).
The mayor said the city government had converted several schools in the city as isolation centers where asymptomatic patients are treated. All in all, Cebu City has BICs with 1,800 bed capacity, he added.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases in jails affecting persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) already reached 424 with 335 cases at the BJMP-Cebu City Jail; 18 cases at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) and 71 cases in BJMP-Mandaue City Jail as of May 6 data from the DOH-7.
Central Visayas COVID-19 cases now reached 1,460 with Cebu City as the epicenter.