Davao City – Davao City’s continued downtrend in Covid-19 cases is attributed to the city government’s stringent health and safety regulations, including active-case finding and surveillance activities in communities, a local health official said.
With the ongoing community testing in the city, Davao City Health Office (CHO) acting head Dr. Ashley Lopez on Wednesday, April 14, during the ‘COVID-19 Alert’ program on Davao City Disaster Radio, urged the public to voluntarily participate in the surveillance swabbing conducted by the city government to prevent the further transmission of the coronavirus disease.
“With this active case-finding sa atong mga surveillance activities ug sa atong intensified contact tracing, expect gyud ta daghan ta’g ma-swab, daghan ta’g ma-test and the target is at least 1,000 testing per day. Kung daghan ta’g ma-test, natural daghan pud tag ma-detect nga positive. Luckily, our positivity rate is still low,” Lopez said.
Lopez said that the surveillance swabbing will help determine the effectivity of the city’s Covid-19 response efforts and validate the slowing down of cases in the city.
“Mao nang significance sa surveillance swabbing, atong ma-confirm kung kaning ginabuhat nato nga campaign o testing nato kaning regular activities nato with Covid-19 campaign is tinuod ba. It will be confirmed by the surveillance swabbing,” Lopez explained.
He also confirmed the continuous downtrend of Covid-19 cases in the city despite the rising of cases in the National Capital Region, however, he said this is not the cause to be complacent.
“The turnout of the surveillance swabbing that we are having right now is indeed nag-prove sa atoa nga ang atong kaso against Covid-19 here in Davao is really slowing down. I would say our Covid-19 community transmission within Davao City is going down,” he said.
According to Lopez, around 3,000 individuals have been tested in the surveillance swabbing for the past two weeks since its implementation with a low positivity rate. 57 of these have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 that causes the coronavirus disease.
He added that more activities will be conducted related to it, especially in workplaces and in high-risk barangays.
“Almost every day naa ta’y schedule, nagbuhat nag-itinerary atong incharge ani. For the whole month, we have schedules already. Not only sa atoang pampublikong lugar or establishments but also sa atong several workplaces including mga high-risk barangays,” Lopez said.
Lopez also encouraged everyone to avail of free consultation at their nearest barangay health districts if they manifest influenza-like symptoms like colds, cough, and fever to prevent the further transmission of the disease.
“Kung naa mo’y high index of suspicion nga exposed mo sa usa ka Covid-19 nga pasyente or naa mo’y mga symptoms like influenza-like symptoms, kanang symptoms nga related sa trangkaso, sip-on, ubo, pwede mo magpaswab. Kini libre ni sya nga ginaprovide sa atong government,” Lopez said.
(City Information Office | Michael Manguhig, RPN DXKT Davao OIC)