Free Community Testing Ongoing For At Risk Sectors In Baguio

BAGUIO CITY (April 16, 2021) –  Workers from the susceptible sectors submitted themselves to Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) testing offered for free under the Aggressive Community Testing (ACT) program of the city government and the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA)-John Hay Management Corp.

The three-day activity that started on April 15 until April 17 at the Melvin Jones targeted 3,000 persons or 1,000 per day on first-come-first-served basis.  A total of 913 persons availed for the swab test last April 15.

Mayor Benjamin Magalong, an advocate of expanded or targeted testing, said aggressive testing should be sustained hand in hand with the other infection control and case management systems established in the city like contact tracing, quarantine and isolation, treatment and prevention to prevent the city’s COVID-19 situation from getting out of hand.

“Although testing will cause the number of our cases to balloon, we will be able to determine where the infections are coming from and know the situation on the ground.

“Because we know our true situation, we will also know how to address the situation, manage the cases and prevent more transmissions,” he said.

City Health Services Officer Dr. Rowena Galpo said they project a 10 percent positivity rate during the activity or around 300 new cases which can further increase after contact tracing.

She said the city is preparing for these additional cases by increasing the bed capacity of the city’s isolation facilities.

The city is also working out means to help public and private hospitals expand their capacities.

The ACT activity is the latest of the several rounds conducted in the city through the help of the BCDA-JHMC.

This time, the targeted sectors include the construction workers, call center agents/business process outsourcing, food handlers, grocery store workers, bank employees, security guards, uniformed personnel, employees of regional line agencies and city employees of regional line agencies and city government employees.***Artemio A. Dumlao***

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