BAGUIO CITY – The national Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) through the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) has commenced the expanded testing in Bontoc, Mountain Province to be able to locate the other possible carriers of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
Dr. Amelita Pangilinan, assistant regional director of the Department of Health (DOH) in the Cordillera who led the team of DOH-contact tracers in Bontoc, said the swabbers will start getting specimens Tuesday and will be subjected to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests.
“They will go to the villages to do the testing among residents,” she said.
Five villages — Samoki, Caluttit, Bontoc Ili, Poblacion and Tucucan have been placed on lockdown, preventing residents from going out of their houses and the village after several persons were found positive for Covid-19.
Bontoc has been tagged by the DOH not just for the spike in cases but also due to the discovery of the presence of B.1.1.7 SARS-CoV-2 (United Kingdom) variant among 12 persons.
Pangilinan said the Regional Epidemiology Health and Surveillance Unit, including the Health Emergency Medical Service unit of the DOH and swabbers, arrived on Monday for the expanded testing.
She said a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing will be done on contacts up to the third generation of those who tested positive as well as other residents in the barangays.
Bontoc Mayor Franklin Odsey has issued Memorandum 50-2021 directing all personnel of the national government agencies with provincial field offices in Bontoc and personnel of the provincial government of Mountain Province to subject themselves to the free PCR mass testing.
The mass testing will be from Jan. 26 to 28.
As of Sunday (January 24), the municipality of Bontoc has a total of 277 active cases, while 111 have already recovered. **By Liza Agoot, PNA
