A swabbing area will soon be established at the Magsaysay Park to help hasten the testing of F2 and F3 contacts, and Davao quick response (DQR)-traced persons in the city.

In a statement Wednesday, the City Information Office (CIO) said the Davao City COVID-19 Task Force is upbeat about putting up a swabbing area at the said park to increase screening and testing capacity among Dabawenyos.

“We are still working on the new swab site supposedly to be set up at Magsaysay Park including logistics and manpower to be deployed there,” Davao City Covid-19 Task Force spokesperson, Dr. Michelle Schlosser, said.

She added that once the Magsaysay Park becomes operational, the Sta. Ana swabbing center will only cater to F1 and persons with influenza-like illnesses (ILIs) while the drive-thru swabbing at the Crocodile Park will accommodate surveillance testing, F2 and F3 without ILIs.

F1 contacts are first-generation contacts of a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) confirmed Covid-19 positive case while F2 contacts are close contacts of F1, and F3 are close contacts of F2.

“Hopefully, this will be put into realization as soon as possible since our Covid-19 positive cases are increasing so goes the number of our swabees,” Schlosser said.

She, however, said only those with vehicles will avail of the drive-thru swab testing as they don’t want people to endure the scorching heat of the sun while queueing.

Schlosser added that each swabbing center tests 700 to 800 persons daily that is more than the daily 500 target.

At times, she said they tested about 2,000 individuals a day. “

“With our heightened surveillance, we are all trying to cater surveillance swabbing, expanded contact tracing, and DQR,” she added. (PNA)