Practicing the minimum health standards remains the best defense of commuters against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), a Department of Health (DOH) official said on Wednesday.
DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, in an online media forum, made this remark in response to suggestions of random testing for those who take the public transportation, especially the Metro Rail Transit (MRT), to go to work.
“Lahat naman ng rekomendasyon sa iba’t ibang eksperto ay aming tinatanggap iyan at pinag-aaralan, pero kailangan din nating tingnan ang kakayanan ng ating (We accept and study the recommendation of various experts, but we also need to check the capacity of our) health system,” Vergeire said.
Dr. Guido David, a member of the UP-OCTA Research, suggested the limitation of public transportation as more than 200 MRT-3 personnel contracted Covid-19.
David also recommended mass randomized testing to identify commuters infected with Covid-19 but are asymptomatic.
His suggestion must be carefully studied because it is “resource intensive”, Vergeire said.
“Testing is a point in time event. Kapag tinest kita ngayon, maaaring bukas may bago ka nang exposure, ite-test pa kita ulit? Kahit wala tayong nagagawang ganyang (If I test you today, you might get a new exposure tomorrow, will I test you again tomorrow? Even if we’re unable to perform such) testing we’ll just enforce our minimum health standards,” she added.
Health authorities and the government have been constantly reminding the public to observe minimum health standards such as wearing of face masks, washing of hands, and observing safe physical distancing.
These practices, Vergeire said, have been proven to decrease the number of Covid-19 infections. (PNA)
