The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) has logged seven to 11 percent positivity rate in its coronavirus disease (COVID-19) tests, one of its officials bared Sunday, March 7.
PRC biomolecular laboratories Chief Dr. Paulyn Ubial lamented the increase in the COVID-19 positivity rate.
"Since February 11, tumataas po ang positivity rate natin sa ating laboratory. Dati rati, nung January and December, umaabot lang tayo ng two to four percent. Ngayon po, inaabot na po tayo ng seven to 11 percent positivity rate sa laboratory po natin. Napakalungkot po (Since February 11, there has been an increase in our positivity rate in our laboratory. Before, last January and December, we only had two to four percent. Now, our laboratories log seven to 11 percent positive rate. It is very saddening.),” she told the ABS-CBN’s TeleRadyo.
She said they already sent more than 400 samples to the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) for sequencing. This accounts for more than 10 percent of the total number of samples tested by the PGC, the PRC official noted.
Ubial noted that so far, the PGC has tested 3,044 saliva and swab samples from the different laboratories in the country.
“Nalista po nila ay meron na pong 14 na different variants na nadetect sa Philippine Genome Center, pero 'yung sinabi nyo nga yung variants of concern ay 'yung UK variant at South African variant kasi 'yan po ang mas nakakahawa kaysa sa ibang variants (They recorded 14 different variants in the Philippine Genome Center, but what you are telling , the variants of concern are UK Variant and South African because they are more contagious than other variants),” she said.
Dr. Noel Bernardo, coordinator of PRC's clinical services, cited as crucial the biosurveillance being conducted by the PGC.
“Ang susi po sa pagresolba at pagdetect ng (The key to resolve and detect the) variants is surveillance, surveilance is important and surveillance is the key,” he said.
“Mahalaga ang testing at ang genetic sequencing para malaman natin kung sino ang ating kalaban at para malaman kung may bagong variant sa Pilipinas. Kung alam natin ang mga datos na ito, mas mate-tailor natin ang mga response natin in terms of public health policies and also how we manage these diseases (Testing and genetic sequencing are important to know our enemy and to know the new variant in the Philippines. If we know these data, we can tailor our response in terms of public health policies and also how we managed these diseases),” Bernardo stressed.