DAVAO CITY —Pregnant women in the town of Santo Tomas, Davao del Norte can now avail of the free rapid antibody testing for coronavirus at the Municipal Health Center.
Santo Tomas Mayor Ernesto Evangelista said this will fast track their admissions to hospitals as it helps detect people with COVID-19.
Evangelista ordered the Municipal Health Office last week to provide the free COVID-19 rapid antibody testing to all pregnant women who are residents of Santo Tomas.
He said public and private hospitals in Davao del Norte now require a rapid antibody testing result from pregnant women who are about to deliver a baby before their admission in these medical facilities.
“I want to help them because the rapid test now becomes mandatory before admission to hospitals, especially if a woman is about to give birth. From a humanitarian perspective, we don’t want to burden them with this requirement. However, we understand this is a protocol in hospitals,” Evangelista said.
He also ordered Municipal Administrator Atty. Elisa Evangelista-Lapiña to oversee the implementation of this directive for the benefit of pregnant women who want to avail of the much-need health service from the Santo Tomas local government unit (LGU).
“We are doing this to help our fellow Tomasinos. And we will make use of our available public resources from our Municipal Health Center to provide this free rapid antibody testing to all pregnant women,” Lapiña said in a statement.
Lapiña said rapid antibody testing in private hospitals costs P1,000.
The municipal administrator said she already asked Municipal Health Officer Dr. June Lim to provide the free service to pregnant women with strict observance of the public minimum health standards and other COVID-19 GCQ-related protocols.
Lapiña emphasized that the Santo Tomas LGU is using only a DOH-approved rapid antibody testing kit and its usage is in conjunction with the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test which the Department of Health (DOH) recommends as it produces the most accurate results.