By Joseph Almer Pedrajas The local government (LGU) of Valenzuela City is taking an "aggressive" stance in flattening the curve through launching on Saturday the country's first localized mass coronavirus disease (COVID-19) testing program for its residents suspected to be afflicted with the disease, as well as health workers and other front liners. (VALENZUELA LGU/ MANILA BULLETIN) Mayor Rex Gatchalian, in a press briefing, said that the city's 537 persons under investigation (PUIs) and persons under monitoring (PUMs) are the priority to get tested. They will be followed by the city's health workers, social workers, other front liners and returning Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). "Walang masama to be more aggressive ," Gatchalian stressed, saying it is their way to identify those who are in immediate need of medical aid. In launching the mass testing, Gatchalian said, they expect that the number of their COVID-19 cases will either surge or that their PUIs and PUMs will significantly dwindle. "Through this, Valenzuela will have a picture kung ilan lang talaga yung positive namin ," he noted. As of press time, the city already has 40 confirmed COVID-19 patients. Three of them already recovered while four have died. According to Gatchalian, the city will be able to conduct 1,000 tests per week. Considering the few number of their PUIs and PUMs and the number of their health workers and other front liners, the mayor said, he expects that all of them will have already been tested once the Luzon's enhanced community quarantine be lifted at the end of April. Gatchalian also took pride when he said that Valenzuela's testing will be faster than the national government's. He said, the city's tests results will come out two days after they are conducted, as compared to the national government, which usually takes almost a week. "Sometimes if you're tested, the anxiety is building up you're waiting whether you're negative or positive," he noted, "The beauty of this localized, targeted mass testing is that we control the case: The local government owns the test kits and the guarantee is two days...mabilis sya ." Gatchalian expressed belief that in conducting mass testing, the local government will also save the some of its resources as the city's manpower and supplies no longer have to attend to the PUIs and PUMs, who are being locked down inside their houses in fear of exposing their neighborhood to risk. Valenzuela's mass testing drive came after the local government signed a public-private partnership with The Medical City (TMC) on April 4. Under their agreement, the city will conduct the tests while TMC will process it. Gatchalian said COVID-19 tests cost P5,150 each, an amount which the city has already earmarked. The process Dr. Amelia Fibra, city pathologist, said that there will be one "swabber" and one assistant who will go right to the patient's house to conduct the test. There are 30 "swabbers" tasked. "We schedule patients who should be swabbed per day... We use the viral transport media to preserve the virus... We follow the strict protocol of each laboratory and all of these are based on the World Health Organization and Department of Health's standards," she told reporters. Gatchalian said that residents who call to their hotlines and are showing COVID-19 symptoms will also be qualified for testing. On Saturday, the city already conducted tests on some 25 households whose members are PUIs and PUMs after being exposed to patients with COVID-19.