The call for mass testing for the new coronavirus couldn’t be loud enough.
The World Health Organization has strongly urged governments all over the world to minimize the guesswork by testing virtually everyone.
“You can’t fight a virus if you don’t know where it is,” said the WHO director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, recently. “Find, isolate, test and treat every case, to break the chains of transmission. Every case we find and treat limits the expansion of the disease.”
The Philippines on Tuesday rolled out it’s “progressive” mass testing to detect COVID-19 cases in the country.
In Valenzuela, the local government is already conducting its own tests.
In a tweet from Mayor Rex Gatchalian, he wrote, “We are using the LGU procured kits to swab our homeless in the temporary homeless shelter.”
“We need to make sure we know their health status… We are watching over them,” he added.
While this is done, people are calling for transparency when it comes to the number of tests done and the results.
“Mayor Rex, request lang po to include the total number of tests conducted in the updates/reports so that the numbers maybe viewed as ratio,” one commented.
The mayor replied, “Yes, we are editing it na.”
To prevent the further spread of the new coronavirus, experts are urging people to stay at home, practice regular hand washing, cover their mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, and avoid close contact with those who exhibit virus symptoms.
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