DUMAGUETE CITY – The city’s Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) has adopted the order of priority for administering tests for coronavirus disease (Covid-19) by the Department of Health (DOH).
The city government here is prioritizing patients, medical professionals, and health workers in the testing for Covid-19 given the limited number of testing kits for both rapid diagnostic testing (RDT) and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) examination, an advisory from city hall late Tuesday evening said.
The first priority would be patients, including medical professionals and health workers that exhibit severe to critical symptoms of Covid-19 with known travel history or contact to a positive patient.
The second priority would include medical professionals and health care workers with mild symptoms and known exposure to a positive patient; all patients with mild symptoms of Covid-19 classified as Persons Under Investigation who are (1) known to be high risk with pre-existing medical condition and/or member of the vulnerable group, and (2) with known travel history or contact to a positive patient.
The third priority are medical professionals and health workers with no symptoms (asymptomatic) but with known exposure to a positive patient and patients with no symptoms (asymptomatic) with known travel history or contact to a positive patient.
Meanwhile, about 1,249 city residents have taken the RT-PCR swab and Rapid Diagnostic tests from April to September 21, 2020 as reported by city health officer Dr. Maria Sarah Talla during Tuesday’s meeting of the city’s IATF-EID.
Dumaguete has logged eight confirmed Covid-19 cases, including six recoveries and two deaths, both senior citizens with underlying health conditions.
This capital city has no active positive case of the coronavirus for almost three weeks now. (PNA)
