Dr. Amelita Pangilinan, director of the Department of Health (DOH)–Cordillera, said the public should not be alarmed as the health department is now seeing a better picture of the Covid-19 situation as risk-based mass testing begins.
“Our focus at this time, although the provinces were sending their specimen, we started last Saturday and Sunday with our health workers in Baguio City especially at the BGHMC. Sixteen positive coronavirus (cases) were recorded over the weekend,” Pangilinan said.
On April 25, the DOH started with its risk-based mass testing for persons at risk, particularly frontline health workers.
“Fifteen health workers were affected with 12 at BGHMC, two at the Cordillera Hospital of the Divine Grace and one at the Baguio City Health Services Offices (CHSO). This gives us a categorization of four nurses, four doctors, a nurse nutritionist-dietician, two nursing attendants, two ambulance drivers, one midwife, and an encoder,” added Pangilinan.
The suspected cases which have been given priority for the test will also include patients with serious or critical illnesses, senior citizens and high risk pregnant women, health workers with high exposure to the Covid-19 and those with severe acute respiratory illnesses and influenza-like symptoms.
Dr. Rowena Galpo, CHSO head, meanwhile said they do not see any clustering of Covid-19 patients in the city.
“Although what is common is if we classify according to district, we are looking at Atok Trail in Loakan having the highest number but still we do not call this as clustering,” Galpo said.
On April 25, 16 Covid-19 cases were reported in the city including an eight–day–old baby.
“On how the baby got infected, the contact tracing is ongoing and we still have to find a lead on the culprit or from where the baby got the infection. Right now, we cannot make any conclusions yet suffice to say the baby is okay and in stable condition although she was diagnosed to have pneumonia but the baby was not intubated,” Galpo added.
BGHMC meanwhile confirmed the operation of another Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) testing machine for the identification of Covid-19 infected specimens of patients coming from regions Ilocos, Cagayan Valley and the Cordillera.
Dr. Ricardo Ruñez Jr., BGHMC medical chief, pointed out the need for additional PCR machines that will serve almost three million residents of the three regions.
“Aside from the two functioning PCR machines, two are still being calibrated. And if I were to summarize our present situation, although we are working at the maximum, because of the number of test specimens that are coming in everyday, our total backlog now is at 554 tests, 148 for Region 2, 137 from Baguio, 119 for a Region 1 and 150 for CAR,” Ruñez explained.
Backlogs meanwhile not completed for a certain period will have to be tested within three days from its arrival to BGHMC.
The health facility at present only has 1,500 test kits in their inventory and in need of replenishment.
“Backlogs can be attributed to some specimen tested that does now show immediate results, or the virus could not be extracted as quickly as possible. This would have to undergo another round of test and as of this morning, we have 95 reruns, meaning, this were tested yesterday but because the results were inconclusive, it has to undergo another test for us to release the most accurate results,” Runez added.
The RT-PCR has a 98 percent accuracy in identifying Covid-19 cases which health authorities consider as the “gold standard” of Covid-19 testing, which is the very first test kits received by the Philippines from the World Health Organization as a real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction-based (rRT-PCR).
These kits include reagents and other chemicals used to check if a patient’s sample has Covid-19 which can only be used in laboratories with PCR machines. The PCR lab technique allows the detection and amplification of genetic material in body fluids or samples.
BGHMC is one of the first five sub-national hospitals categorized by the Department of Health (DOH) for coronavirus disease or Covid-19 laboratory testing.
JONATHAN LLANES
April 28, 2020