The spike of Covid-19 cases in Quezon City is due to the local government’s aggressive testing and contact tracing, according to Mayor Joy Belmonte.
AGGRESSIVE testing and contact tracing have led to the identification of more Covid-19 cases in Quezon City, according to the local government.
According to a recent report by the OCTA Research Group, the average number of new cases per day in the city is at 420 for the week of May 4 to 10. This resulted in a reproduction number of 1.02 and a positivity rate of 15 percent.
However, Mayor Joy Belmonte assures her residents that the sharp rise in Covid-19 cases was due to the city government’s ramped-up testing efforts.
“Over the past weeks, our numbers are on a downward trend but the decrease has been slow. While we are treating and isolating confirmed cases in order to mitigate the spread, we also expanded our testing which determines not just symptomatic patients but also asymptomatic ones,” Mayor Belmonte said.
Belmonte explained that this is a more effective way of identifying and isolating the infectious and that the slow decline in numbers is in fact better than not identifying infectious residents at all.
Currently, the city’s Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance Unit (CESU) has established 22 community-based testing sites which operate from Mondays to Saturdays.
CESU also opened its online booking process for faster appointment scheduling of those symptomatic, with close contact, and other priority individuals such as those who will undergo medical procedures, dialysis patients and pregnant women.
The city also employed a combination of rapid Antigen tests and RT-PCR tests in identifying positive cases.
Two mobile-testing trucks for community testing are used in lockdown areas and other far-flung barangays.
On average, the city conducts around 3,026 tests per day, reaching a peak of 4,000 a day.
New machines donated by the Temasek Foundation in Singapore also increased the number of samples that can be processed at the city-owned molecular laboratory by up to a thousand.
The city also maximized its KyusiPass app to support its contact tracing activities.
Recent updates from CESU showed that KyusiPass system has identified 4,134 individuals who have been possibly exposed to now 23 positive cases in the city.
“Upon reviewing the activities of residents who tested positive last May 7 to 12, we learned that 23 of them were at certain establishments during the time they’re most likely infectious,” CESU Chief Dr. Rolando Cruz said. (SC)
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