Intensified mass testing posts 3% positivity rate
THE Provincial Health Office’s expanded targeted mass testing for COVID-19 yielded only 3% positivity rate since it started in May 2020.
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Anna Ma. Teresa De Guzman, said the rate was determined from the 96,443 tested samples as of January 12, and only 3,270 tested positive.
The results included test samples from 2,403 tests during the first round (May to September 2020) and 14,702 tests on second round (September to December 2020); and 2111 drop offs from Philippine Red Cross, 10,000 from Parkway and other molecular laboratories, 53,401 from Ilocos Training and Regional Medical Center and 13,826 from, private hospitals.
The provincial health officer pointed out that the tests utilized the Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test, the gold-standard in mass testing as directed by
Gov. Amado I. Espino III.
The Pangasinan Molecular Laboratory received its License to Operate recently.
Dr. De Guzman also stated that mild persons under investigation (PUI) cases, frontline workers, and returning residents are prioritized during the mass testing.
The Provincial Health Office also developed a contact tracing tool, a checklist of the conditions of individuals exposed to COVID-19, to guide the contact tracers. This contact tracing tool is used by all local government units in Pangasinan and fourteen government-run hospitals.
The relatively low positivity rate of the confirmed cases in the province also attributed the low positivity rate to the FIT3-RP strategy (Find, Isolate, Test, Trace, Treat, Reintegration and Prevention) that effectively help in controlling the spread of COVID-19 in the province.
(PIO/PJA)
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