The Office of the Vice President (OVP) has started on Tuesday, March 30, the conduct of its free mobile antigen service in Malabon City to boost the local government units’ testing capacity for the coronavirus disease.
In a Facebook post, Vice President Leni Robredo announced that 419 residents from the city’s five barangays were swabbed, with 24 of them testing positive for COVID-19 as of 1 p.m.
The OVP deployed three Swab Cabs to barangays Longos, Potrero, Tonsuya, Tañong and Flores.
This project includes 3,040 care kits and 3,000 rapid antigen swab test kits. The care kits consist of face shields and face masks.
During the first few hours of the rollout, tests were done within an average of two minutes. Robredo’s office closely coordinated with the Malabon city government throughout the process, in particular for next steps for COVID-19 positive cases.
“The BHERTs of the respective barangays are already doing aggressive contact tracing. Those who turned out positive will be isolated already,” she said.
BHERTs are the Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams, which are tasked to visit houses, trace cases, and oversee the transfer of infected residents in isolation facilities.
“LGU Malabon is scheduled to do confirmatory RT PCR tests tomorrow. At least, yung nag positive na, na isolate na ngayon (those tested positive are isolated now). And they will remain isolated until the RT PCR tests are out and until they have completed the required protocols,” Robredo added.
The vice president noted that the Swab Cabs can test as many as 1,500 residents on Tuesday but she observed the “reality is that many are afraid to undergo swabbing.”
Robredo cited the report of the BHERTs on the ground which said residents were afraid to be tested because if they yielded positive results, they can’t afford to be isolated due to their jobs and children.
With this, she underscored the need to educate more residents about COVID-19 and the “proper way (is) to self isolate, if they have the necessary space at home and will pose no danger of transmitting to household members.”
Robredo said the LGUs should provide “comfortable” isolation centers to prevent resistance of those infected from being transferred in the facility. They should ensure the residents receive cash aid while in quarantine, she added.