WARRANTED

By Majella Arago

In light of the continuously rising number of corona-virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in the country, it is only rightful that a mass testing be implemented and made available as soon as possible.

An alliance of more than 1,000 biologists, health experts, and other concerned individuals, as well as 336 organizations in the Philippines, have launched a petition calling on the national government to start mass testing for corona-virus on Friday, March 20.

In addition to social distancing and quarantine measures, widespread testing is also crucial in containing the spread of the coronavirus, says the group Scientists Unite Against COVID-19. They also emphasized that mass testing would give the government a clearer picture of the extent of the infections in the country and be able to respond accordingly.

However, the Department of Health (DOH) claims that mass testing of Filipinos for the new corona-virus disease (COVID-19) is unnecessary for the meantime though it is among the government’s contingency plans for the pandemic. This also stems from the fact that there are still limited supplies of test kits and laboratories and experts to facilitate mass testing.

In a pilot study conducted in Italy, the worst-affected country outside of China, they have tested all residents of Vò, a town of 3,000 inhabitants near Venice – including those who did not have symptoms. This allowed them to quarantine people before they showed signs of infection and stop the further spread of corona-virus. This way, they were able to eradicate corona-virus in under 14 days.

Unfortunately, it would be a great challenge to repeat this model in a large city or an entire country for that matter due to the number of people who would need to be tested. However, these findings warrant careful consideration by health policymakers around the world. It would be best to eradicate the virus through extensive testing of both symptomatic individuals and all of their social contacts such as relatives, friends, and neighbors. In this way, we catch out the disease before it has the chance to spread – and, most importantly, before the carrier unknowingly passes it on to others.

In the absence of specific therapies or a vaccine, quarantine, distancing and identification of asymptomatic carriers remain the only real measures to control this pandemic. Before it is too late, it is, therefore, right to heed the recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO), that the best line of defense right now is to “test, test, test.”