Over 500 QC vendors undergo pooled testing
MANILA, Philippines — Almost 550 vendors from Frisco, Tandang Sora, Philand Drive and Balintawak Market in Quezon City were tested for the coronavirus over the weekend, the city public information office said.
In a statement, the Quezon City local government disclosed that 8 individuals out of the 549 vendors tested came out positive and were immediately brought to care facilities in the city.
City Health Department chief Esperanza Arias, a doctor, said that pooled testing is a suitable practice for big groups as it allows testing of more individuals with fewer resources.
“Pooling allows us to save resources and test more citizens initially. We will only need to retest them individually if a pool indicated a positive result,” he said.
Through the pooled testing, the city health executive said, swab samples from five asymptomatic individuals are processed together to detect COVID-19.
Quezon City took the top spot in cases added in the health department's case bulletin on Sunday afternoon with 137 new infections recorded in the locality.
The day before on Saturday, elements of the Quezon City Task Force Disiplina raided a karaoke bar in the city which was found to be serving some 30 customers.
According to figures from business data platform Statista, the Philippines still sits among the bottom tier in tests performed in the most impacted countries worldwide, with only around 51,000 tests conducted per million population as of November 26.
As of the Department of Health's latest update, the national caseload has breached 430,000. It has been 259 days since the first enhanced community quarantine was hoisted over some parts of Luzon. — Franco Luna
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