Select Iloilo towns, Passi City to pilot pooled PCR testing program

By Jennifer P. Rendon

 

Towns in Southern Iloilo and the component city of Passi will take the lead in the implementation of pooled swab testing in Iloilo province.

And for Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, the move is deemed as a “game changer” in the country’s battle against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Roque virtually participated in the webinar of the Pooled Swab Testing Program on Thursday at Guimbal, Iloilo.

Roque was joined by Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion, Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello, top Malacañang officials, key business personalities, and Iloilo officials.

Roque congratulated and gave credit to Iloilo First District Rep. Janette Loreto-Garin and Concepcion for the initiative.

“Once implemented on a nationwide basis,” Roque said, “the pooled testing that will start in Southern Iloilo and Passi City will help us flatten the curve.”

Aimee Neri thanked Rep. Garin and sister-in-law AAMBIS OWA partylist Representative Sharon Garin.  The duo has been in the forefront of anti-COVID 19 efforts aimed at alleviating the effects to families and communities.

With the pooled testing underway, Neri said a P5,000 grant will be given to all COVID-19 patients in Southern Iloilo.

“This P5,000 emergency subsidy is for every constituent of Southern Iloilo who will test positive and will undergo quarantine in a government facility.  This is in collaboration with the Office of Representative Garin,” Undersecretary Neri said while adding that other government agencies have similar grants as well.

Pooled testing for COVID-19 is one of the main responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under the strategy, public health officials will only test small groups – called pools – of people using only one test. This means, more people could be tested faster using fewer tests and for less money.

Instead of testing one person at a time, samples from multiple individuals would be mixed together and tested as one. If the test comes back negative, everyone in the pool is clear. If positive, each member of the pool is then tested individually.

“Once implemented on a nationwide basis,” Roque said, “the pooled testing that will start in Southern Iloilo and Passi City will help us flatten the curve.”

Roque said pooled testing would complement the government’s effort on contact tracing and strengthening the country’s institutionalized facilities and isolation centers.

 

SAFETY OF HEALTH WORKERS

Garin said southern Iloilo and Passi City will be the first to test the inactivated viral transport media.

It was designed and optimized for molecular testing allowing pathogenic samples to be collected, transported, and processed safely and efficiently.

The molecular transport medium inactivates infectious biological pathogens including viruses, and gram-positive/negative bacteria while preserving and stabilizing DNA and RNA for downstream molecular applications.

“So, we swab an individual. If the patient turns out positive, immediately after, the virus is already inactivated. Meaning, our personnel from RHU and quarantine centers who collected the swab are protected because we already rendered the virus non-infectious,” Garin said, adding that the new innovation is seen to help health workers.

The pooled swab testing program was done over a month of research with the Philippine Society of Pathologists, the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine, and the Philippine Children’s Medical Center, Garin said.

Apart from health workers, the lady lawmaker said pooled testing will be made available to vulnerable and exposed workers.

They will receive assistance from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) or DOLE while isolation.

Garin said the Ayala Foundation donated P1 million worth of test kits and extraction swabs.

Concepcion also made a donation for pregnant women while a P3.6-million grant will be given to non-medical frontliners.

The pooled testing was initially conducted among supermarket workers.

Around 10,000 residents of Makati City will initially undergo the test.

The formal implementation will be on September 2.

After results would be submitted to the DOH, Iloilo and Cebu could start with the program and it will then be cascaded to other parts of the country.

Garin clarified that the pooled swab testing is not exclusive for residents of Southern Iloilo towns and Passi City.

But she said that other towns could have their counterpart by procuring their test kits.

For private businessmen, the owners could also initiate to procure testing kits for their employees.

It was gathered that three machines for the implementation of swab testing have been procured by Go Negosyo, Southern Iloilo Health Zone, and Passi City.

 

CONFIDENCE

Garin said the project’s aim is to put back confidence in workplaces.

“We need to work. The pooled testing is to test people regularly. If they are positive, they would be isolated and the DSWD would help them,” she said.

Garin said the project aims to protect workplaces and homes as the vaccine could take time before it is made publicly available.

“We have a long-lasting pandemic without a vaccine or a cure yet.  What we need to do now is to co-exist with this virus. In winning the fight against COVID-19, we must learn how to live with the virus,” Garin said.

“We need to attack COVID, not just wait for it to show via the symptoms manifested by the patients.  We need to keep on testing and immediately isolate the positives while allowing the negatives to help our economy recover.”

Garin, the chief implementor of Project ARK, explained that pooled testing will not only make COVID-19 testing affordable but identify positive individuals who are asymptomatic.