Trust and confidence in the rapid test

For one and a half week, the three cities of Cebu, Mandaue, and Lapu-Lapu deployed their health personnel in the barangays to test at least 10 percent of the total households for possible COVID-19 infection. At first, participants were randomly selected, with some barangays giving recommendations on who should undergo the test, such as those who were “very exposed”. Because of the low turnout, the personnel had to go back to the barangays again and announced that the rapid test might be a requirement when they will be allowed back to work.

Although, the interagency tasked to manage this disease has said that it is not a requirement for work, it is all up to the employers. As the first batch of results from the mass rapid testing rolled out, it turned out that there were more negatives than positives. In Lapu-Lapu, most of the positive cases from the rapid testing came from one sitio where a lot of MEPZ workers reside. They locked the sitio down, which means workers from that area could not report for work, given the situation.

But do we all trust the rapid test? It has been announced that the rapid test does not detect the Sars-CoV-2 virus which is responsible for COVID-19. It only detects the anti-bodies that our bodies have produced for the virus. Once tested positive for anti-bodies, you need to undergo swab sampling for the PCR test which confirms the presence of the virus. It sounds like doing double testing, double also the money spent. But reality is, PCR is the gold standard but it is not practical for mass testing. It is too expensive that it may drain out the government's treasury. While the rapid test kits are cheap, there is also an issue of sensitivity.

There are a lot of questions that have not been answered in the mass testing such as: How much was spent? What brand for the kits was used? Where was the source of the money? And many more. But now that the tests are over, all these questions now seem moot and academic. I do hope that the data that we have now would help us map out the infection in the three cities, at least.

But the problem now is that the cases are now spilling over to the province of Cebu where mass testing hasn't been done yet. Now it makes me think if the approach of test, treat, track is the way to go in defeating this virus. Most of the cases are asymptomatic. Once tested positive, you are asked to isolate in your home or would be moved to an isolation center. After two weeks when the virus is gone from your body, you are returned back to the community. Didn't transmission occur in the community?

We live in a very interesting time that makes trusting even harder.