By Panay News -Thursday, August 27, 2020
BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA

BACOLOD City – Despite doubts and opposition, officials of this city and in Negros Occidental will push through the planned “Timeout Weekend” – a four-day strategic plan to address the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak.

Former Negros Occidental 3rd District congressman and now provincial government consultant Alfredo Benitez assured the approval of the regional and national inter-agency task forces on the management of emerging infectious diseases.

He said the plan will push for a lockdown in Bacolod City on Aug. 28 to 29 and in Murcia, Silay, Talisay and Bago City on Aug. 30 to 31.

The “Time-out Weekend,” according to Benitez, would give way to the mass testing of 10,000 symptomatic individuals for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the five local government units.

He revealed that the regional task force already prepared a resolution for the “timeout” and that the national task force has also the assurance with the arrival today of Environment secretary Roy Cimatu, Secretary Carlito Galvez and Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Secretary Mike Diño.

According to Benitez, Dino offered a laboratory in Cebu if needed for the mass testing and he has already talked to Sen. Richard Gordon for the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. coverage of the Red Cross Lab.

“So far we are almost assured of the capacity to hit the 10,000 target for mass testing,” Benitez said.

He also revealed that the budgetary requirement of P35 million for the time-out weekend.

“The only way to see the enemy which is the virus is to test that’’s why we will hold the mass testing to contain its transmission,” Benitez explained.

Earlier, Dr. Julius Drilon, chief of the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital, questioned the planned four-day mass testing.

The CLMMRH head said officials who are leading the proposal should also consider different machines used by the five laboratories in the province, as well as their capacity in releasing the results.

According to the doctor, if these machines are to be combined, they can only process around 1,700 tests per day.

He also questioned as to where the COVID-19 positive individuals will be brought, and how the contact tracing would be conducted.

Drilon also raised the need for additional medical technologists and encoders to hasten the release of the test results.

The CLMMRH, he said, will not be able to accept the swab samples of 10,000 target individuals if the problem of supply and the lack of protective equipment are addressed, saying he doesn’t want to risk the safety of the laboratory operators./PN