Cebu City to kick off pooled PCR testing

CEBU, Philippines —  The City of Cebu is set to embark on a "game-changer" in attacking COVID-19 through a pooled RT-PCR testing.

Mayor Edgardo Labella joined in a virtual Memorandum Of Agreement (MOA) signing with Project Ark’s proponents, including former DOH secretary and now Iloilo Representative Janette Garin, presidential adviser for entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo’s Joey Concepcion along with the BDO Foundation, the Cebu Chamber of Commerce, Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas, UCMED, the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center(VSMMC), the DOH-7 and other entities.

Even before the launching of this pooled testing initiative, Labella had thanked the BDO Foundation and the Sy family for helping out the city, the latest of which is the establishment of the dialysis center for non-COVID patients for the underprivileged Cebuanos.

Labella said it is hard to fight the invisible enemy considering that Cebu City has more than one million residents, while more than a million passengers use both sea and airports.

“There is a moving population here. This pooled testing cannot be overemphasized because there are many sectors in Cebu City. Jeepney drivers, taxi drivers, vendors and so on. I really welcome this project,” said Labella.

Other countries have already been doing this kind of testing.

Based on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, pooling or batch testing means combining respiratory samples from several people and conducting one laboratory test on the combined pool of samples to detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Pooling allows laboratories to test more samples with fewer testing materials. It could be useful in scenarios like returning groups of workers to a workplace.

As such, it will also cut on cost and time in detecting the virus.

If the pooled test result is negative, all the samples can be presumed negative with the single test.  If positive, each of the samples in the pool will need to be tested individually to determine which samples are positive.

Pooling is ideal for areas or situations where the number of positive test results is expected to be low — for example in areas with a low prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infections.

Prior to the launching of this pooled testing, a research had been conducted by experts involved in the project.

DOH-7 Chief Pathologist and COVID-19 Spokesperson Dr. Mary Jean Loreche said they have also conducted their own verification of such methods at the moment.

“We always believe that the fight for covid is not of the public sector alone, but also the private sector. It is an initiative by all of us working in the same direction. We are a supporter of Go Negosyo’s Project Ark. Simply put, test and isolate, because clearly it’s not a trade off between life and livelihood, but is trying to address both as one could not exist without the other,” said BDO Unibank’s President Nestor Tan.

Makati had already done its pilot testing while the start of the pooled testing here might take place next week, if DOH-7 already gives it a go.

Concepcion said they might do a pool of five here in Cebu, but not as many as 20 for a single test.

While still waiting for the clearance and all the materials needed, those who are involved in Cebu will be undergoing the training as to how the pooled testing will be done.

“As what the World Health Organization has announced, we don’t wait for the vaccine, we have to improve our virus response. We cannot just stay and wait,”said Garin. — GAN (FREEMAN)