Davao City – The Davao City government is planning to put up an additional swabbing area to test more individuals as part of its aggressive efforts to manage the transmission of COVID-19.
Davao City Health Office (CHO) acting head Dr. Ashley Lopez, during the ‘COVID-19 Alert’ program aired via Davao City Disaster Radio, said that they are targeting to open another swabbing area to accommodate more individuals and to decongest the Sta. Ana swabbing center.
Lopez revealed that the plan is ongoing. They are also considering Magsaysay Park as an additional swabbing site.
“What we consider right now is ang Magsaysay Park. Basin tukuran namo og additional swab area didto,” Lopez said.
According to the local health chief, they are also targeting to accommodate referrals from private medical organizations.
“Naa ta’y mga referrals coming from private institutions, private clinics and even private hospitals kay dili tanang pasyente makabayad og testing,” Lopez said.
Due to the high demand for testing activities, Lopez said that he has requested the emergency hiring of swabbers to augment the city’s COVID-19 testing operations.
“Manginahanglan mi og at least 12 additional swabbers nga pwede i-train. You can apply immediately Lopez said.
Recently, Lopez said that the Davao City government is aiming to test more individuals to confirm the remaining cases and trace those in close contact with a confirmed COVID-19 positive.
Lopez further said that the city government is serious in implementing COVID-19 regulations in a bid to curb the spread of COVID-19 infection as well as to prevent the transmission of new COVID-19 variants.
“As much as possible, we would like to zero in on these old cases,” he said.
Since the city government heightened its active case-finding and surveillance swabbing, it has made the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test for coronavirus accessible to more Dabawenyos.
(City Information Office | Michael Manguhig, RPN DXKT Davao OIC)
