The country’s weakest links amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic are testing and tracing, said a public health expert on Tuesday, Jan. 11.
Public health expert and former National Task Force (NTF) against COVID-19 special adviser Dr. Anthony “Tony” Leachon said that the country’s “weakest links” amid the pandemic are the lack of proper testing and contact tracing.
“Ang weakest links natin ay testing and tracing which fundamental kahit wala pang bakuna. Kaya tayo nag-fail kasi hindi natin na-establish ang ating testing capacity. Wala rin tayong masyadong magandang contact tracings na nangyari so for the longest time pagtaas ng cases natin, ang naging natural tendency natin ay lockdown (Our weakest links are testing and tracing which are fundamental even without a vaccine. That’s why we have failed because we weren’t able to establish our testing capacity. We also don’t have very good contact tracings going on so for the longest time, if the number of cases increases, our natural tendency has been implementing lockdown),” said Leachon in an interview over DZRH.
He likewise said that among other factors behind the uptick of COVID-19 cases in the country were the low vaccination rate and the superspreader events which triggered the spread of Omicron in Metro Manila.
“I don’t see a silver lining at the end of the tunnel. Bakit ko nasabi ‘yan? E paano wala naman tayong ginagawa. Dapat test kits ‘to eh. Number two ang ating vaccination rate ay mababa – less than 50 percent, tapos ang ating boosters ay wala pang isang milyon (I don’t see a silver lining at the end of the tunnel. Why did I say that? That’s because we are not doing anything. We could’ve provided test kits. Number two, our vaccination rate is low – less than 50 percent and our boosters are less than a million),” Leachon said.
Since the pandemic started in 2020, the country has already confirmed a total of 3,026,473 COVID-19 cases. Of this number, 181, 016 patients are still undergoing treatment.