Mayor Brian’s rapid test kits

By Leonardo Micua

 

WE read an article published online by a Manila daily that said the government has allotted P3.2 billion to buy rapid test kits, quoting the presidential adviser for entrepreneur Jose Maria Concepcion III, as saying this was done despite warning from the Department of Health (DOH) that using these kits “might lead to false negatives”.

Naloko na! Hasn’t Mayor Brian Lim bought 1,000 rapid test kits from his eight months salary, that he reportedly donated to the Dagupan City government? The test kits, according to Lim’s PIO, costs P1,000, so the mayor paid P1 million.

It was not clarified by the PIO if the 500 kits the mayor shared with Binmaley, Calasiao, Lingayen, San Fabian and Mangaldan at 100 each per town, were taken from the 1,000 rapid test kits he bought.  It’s unlikely that he spent another P500,000 from his pocket to buy test kits for the five neighboring towns.

Given the warning by the DOH itself that using the rapid test kits might lead to false negatives, meaning a symptomatic person may be tested in correctly, didn’t he exercise due diligence before buying the kits?

Or was he merely duped into purchasing the test kits with his own money just to show he is in solidarity with members of President Duterte’s cabinet who earlier donated their month’s salaries to help the fight COVID-19? Just asking!

The second point is, why did he have to buy the kits when the government announced it would distribute rapid test kits if it did not distribute already?

In Pangasinan, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Anna de Guzman said the provincial government will soon conduct mass testing using the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), instead of the immunoassay or rapid testing based on the presence of antibodies.

According to her, PCR, where oropharyngeal swabbing is needed, is more specific and sensitive compared to the rapid testing that may not detect the antibodies during the first stage of infection while PCR can identify the virus even during the initial onset of the symptoms. There you are.

I am not saying that the one million pesos used by the mayor in buying the rapid test kits could have just gone to the wind.

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The report of the PHO that the COVID-19 problem in the province is now confined to only five towns and two cities, is truly the best news that we have received so far while on quarantine for more than a month at home.  

While the statistics on COVID-19 in Luzon continue to soar, not to mention the increasing number of body bags being hauled out of hospitals in the National Capital Region and in other provinces, we are luckier in Pangasinan that the contagion is now about to be contained.

Except for a few pocket areas where the coronavirus remains and has not been flushed out, it may be just a matter of days before Pangasinan can be officially declared as COVID-19-free based on the trend in recovered cases by COVID-19 patients which as of this writing stands at 14.

This is a tribute to all of us but especially to the front line workers in hospitals who are risking their own lives so others will be saved, including policemen and military personnel and their force multipliers who are enforcing discipline on the streets and in public markets. 

Sadly, Dagupan City is still in the list of COVID-19-affected areas with six positive cases, one of whom had died and two others had recovered as of April 16 counts. There were five PUIs that died, three of whom were found negative of the virus and another one was awaiting the result of the throat swab.        

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Before deadline, we received a report that Mayor Brian Lim asked the DSWD to consider 70,000 families from Dagupan for its Special Amelioration Program to be granted P5,000 to P8,000 in cash aid.

However, DSWD Regional Director Nicomedes Castillo only approved a little more than 28,000. We suspect, the DSWD may have thought the list submitted by the mayor was overblown and exaggerated. Try multiplying the 70,000 by five and you will arrive into conclusion that this is not the exact population of Dagupan today which could make others think that everyone in Dagupan is poor. Definitely not!

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