Fear of job loss, lack of money delay COVID-19 test for some with symptoms —health group
Published August 26, 2020 5:26pm
It takes an average of six days before some individuals exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 take the test due to fear of job loss and lack of money, an alliance of health professionals said.
“Iyong iba po, sinasabi nila, may sinat lang, pagod lang, pinagwawalang bahala …natatakot po kasi mawalan ng trabaho kasi no work, no pay sila, walang perang pambayad o baka mahawa,” Dr. Aileen Espina of the Health Professionals Alliance Against COVID-19 said during a briefing before the House Committee on Metro Manila Development on contact tracing efforts.
Espina said DOH records would show that there are 71.9% of the 12,723 COVID-19 cases where date of onset of illness is unreported and as a consequence, the date of specimen collection was used as a proxy.
“Kaya napakadali pong makapanghawa. Ang reproduction rate po natin, ang nahahawa ng isa ay dalawang tao. Sa anim na araw [bago siya ma-test], iyong dalawang tao may iba nang mahahawa,” she said.
Given the situation, Espina called for improved contact tracing efforts and a centralized database for COVID-19 test results which are also accessible to employers.
Contact tracing czar and Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong agreed with Espina, saying that the one person infected by COVID-19 has been exposed to at least 37 other individuals.
As it is, Magalong said that the national average contact tracing ratio is just 1:5.
“We need to enhance our contact tracing ratio. The benchmark is one to 37, using four teams per case,” Magalong said.
From over 216,000 close contacts of COVID-19 patients traced in August 4, Magalong said that this has climbed to over 413,000 in August 18.
Among Metro Manila cities, Manila is the best performing with a 1:12 contract tracing ratio. The rest of the NCR cities, however, are just at 1:2 to 1:5.
Magalong, however, said that the job is far from over.
“There is slight improvement, but am I satisfied? I am not. Dapat very sharp na ang pag akyat [ng numero ng mga tao na nate-trace], but it is yet to happen,” Magalong said.—LDF, GMA News
