Reg’l IATF monitors surge of COVID-19 cases in Siquijor

The Provincial IATF meeting attended by some members of the RIATF MEID. 

SIQUIJOR, Siquijor, Sept. 29 (PIA) -- The Regional Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (RIATF MEID) is now closely monitoring the surge of COVID-19 cases in Siquijor province.  

During the Provincial IATF virtual meeting attended by the Department of Health (DOH), Office of Civil Defense (OCD) and other member agencies on Sept. 28, DOH-7 Regional Director Jaime Bernadas said the critical part of the response is the cooperation of the barangay officials, barangay health emergency and response teams (BHERTs), and health workers at the local government unit and DOH. 

Bernadas said that short of capability of testing, the role of the barangay health workers and officials in the surveillance and monitoring are critical because they are at the forefront.

DOH-7 Regional Director Jaime Bernadas assured the Siquijor province of their support in the management of the surge of COVID-19 cases. (Screenshot during the IATF virtual meeting)

They can easily monitor and identify the symptomatic patients and those who have  been exposed in their areas and immediately advise for isolation and testing, he said.

At this point when COVID-19 transmission is rising in Siquijor, Bernadas discouraged home isolation as it is challenging to implement quarantine measures in the home. 

He said that aside from case identification and surveillance, isolation facilities should be identified.

Bernadas advised to segregate those that are close contacts of positive cases and those that are already identified to be positive through antigen tests, and monitor the progression of their illness for timely referral to hospital treatment. 

Aside from the short supply of antigen kits and testing modalities,  one of the issues faced by Siquijor province raised during the IATF meeting is the molecular laboratory which until now is not yet operational. 

Bernadas along with DOH-7 Chief Pathologist and Spokesperson Dr. Mary Jean Loreche  assured that the team will assess the capability and readiness of the province including the training of personnel to man the molecular lab. 

DOH-7 Chief Pathologist and Spokesperson Dr.  Mary Jean Loreche. 

Loreche explained the testing protocols given the situation and limitation of Siquijor province, and how much DOH-7 can support with the antigen kits and facilitate the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) confirmatory test while the molecular lab is not yet operational in the province. 

She noted that Siquijor province’s COVID-19 positivity rate is high which is close to 50%. 

Loreche said that on Sept. 22, they received from Siquijor province 643 samples for testing, of which 228 were positive and 85 of those positive are qualified for genomic sequencing. 

On Sept. 24 , another 298 samples were received, of which 172 tested positive and 63 can also qualify for sending to the genomic center, while on Sept. 25, another 178 samples were tested and 103 tested positive of which four are for sending to the genomic center.

Loreche said the case in Siquijor is quite alarming as she suspects that it might be a Delta-driven surge. 

“I hope I am proven wrong when all of these samples will be sent to the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) for sequencing, that you will not have a Delta variant positivity,” she said.

“Nonetheless, we treat like you have the Delta variant even without the genomic center results as yet, because by the time that the results are released to us or the report is given back, we know that it becomes history already,” she said.

She urged the provincial officials, frontliners and health workers, to treat all the positive cases like they have the Delta variant so that when they receive the results of positive cases, they should ensure that they do immediate contact tracing, isolation or quarantine, and immediately test all contacts whether they are symptomatic or asymptomatic. 

“Treat all who are close contacts like they have the virus,” she said, reminding the Provincial IATF that test kits are essential to be able to move forward in containing the surge of the cases.

“Kaya natin ‘yan. We have not yet reached the peak of your cases but in the next 10 to 14 days, we should be better able to assess already your cases provided we do the immediate testing right now including the surveillance and monitoring,” she said. (RAC/PIA7 Siquijor)