DAVAO CITY – The local government has re-imposed the mandatory Covid-19 testing for air travellers entering Davao City through the Francisco Bangoy International Airport as part of the health protocols.
Dr. Ashley Lopez, the acting City Health Officer and focal person of the Davao City Covid-19 Task Force said the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases has classified Davao City as “Low Risk”
Lopez said the local government is working to keep the numbers low through the CHO’s heightened surveillance and response of Covid-19 cases. “We have directed the barangay and district health offices to establish their surveillance units, including detection of symptomatic that are related to our influenza-like infections and acute respiratory infections. They also do house-to-house surveillance,” Lopez said.
Mayor Sara Carpio said the increase in (Covid-19) surveillance testing and faster contact tracing remain a priority to control the spread of the deadly respiratory disease here amid the surging coronavirus cases, especially in the National Capital Region.
Carpio said a lockdown for Davao City is not an option because it further impacts the business activities.
“Dili ingana kadali ang mosulti ka nga mag-lockdown especially karon nga ang mga businesses nato they are spread very thinly already. Dili na siya mao ang atoang first option karon. Ang atoang (first) option karon is testing, and make sure nga paspas ang contact tracing,” she said.
Since the past weeks, the local government has stepped up its surveillance testing in areas that are monitored and reported with high exposure and cases of Covid-19. Carpio said this is one of the measures to prevent the further spread or clustering of Covid-19 cases and the potential surge of infections in the community.
“We try to unahan ang clustering of cases. Makita nato didto sa contact tracing kung asa nagtrabaho or unsa’y exposure sa isa ka-tao, didto ta naga-target og surveillance swabbing and testing. Example, ang palengkes are known to be areas diin asa daghan usually ang naay exposure,” she said.
The local government teams recently conducted surveillance swabbing in Agdao Public Market and tested around 300 people and nine of them were positive for Covid-19.
The teams also prepared a schedule for surveillance in Bangkerohan Public Market and those in charge of the enforcement of the minimum public health standards have also coordinated with the City Health Office which is part of the Covid-19 Task Force Response Cluster.
Carpio said there should be a daily schedule of targeted areas based on risk classification and where there are high cases of Covid-19. “We will test as much as we can. The challenge karon is paunsa nato ma-convince ang mga tao nga magpa-testing bisan pa man og wala sila’y gibati nga symptoms because since kaniadto hantod karon duna gihapoy resistance ang mga tao,” she said.
Regular testing for close contacts of Covid-19 positive patients or F1 is also continuing.
Carpio said the local government is trying to expand the testing for F2 and F3 with the help of the Safe Davao QR.
“Kaniadto ang F2 ug F3, dili nato gina-testing. Atoa lang silang ginapa-standby and self-monitor and kung mag-positive ang F1 ayha pa sila i-refer for testing. Pero karon gina-try nato og reach out ang atong testing until F2 and F3 close contacts (We don’t test F2 and F3 before. They were only advised to standby and self-monitor and if the F1 turns out positive that’s when they will be referred for testing. Now we are trying to reach out our testing until F2 and F3 close contacts),” she said. (With additional reporting from Malou Cablinda, CIO)
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