The City Government of Valenzuela signs a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with its 3^rd COVID-19 laboratory partner and has now officially started testing and doing mandatory quarantine of its Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and returning residents, May 07, 2020.

The retrofitted Valenzuela City Town Hall, an addition to the City’s set of central isolation units for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), is now operating and is ready to house 30 OFWs and returning residents of the City. With the sector included on its localized targeted mass testing, a new laboratory partner came just right in time to add to the City’s daily testing capacity.

Same with the previous procedures with the first two (2) laboratory partners (The Medical City and Detoxicare Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory, Inc.), Valenzuela City has already procured the Assay test kits, extraction kits, medium and swab kits and shall also be the one to administer the swab test to retrieve the Oropharyngeal (OP) and Nasopharyngeal (NP) sample from the patients.

The samples will be transported and will be endorsed to its newest laboratory partner while observing the proper identification and storage temperature. The City also complies with the correct patient preparation, specimen collection and packaging, and transport procedures of the samples.

True enough, Valenzuela City has been very committed to execute programs to “Test, Trace and Isolate” and to be able to see the dimension of where the City is when it comes to identifying confirmed COVID-19 cases.

The third laboratory shall now help the local government as it awaits more specimens from OFWs returning to the City.

Heeding to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) Resolution Nos. 26 and 29, returning OFWs are to undergo an RT-PCR COVID-19 swab test and a mandatory 14-day quarantine. With this, the City has now fully operated its newest isolation facility, the Valenzuela City Town Hall. The facility now caters to eight (8) clients as of May 07, 2020.

Food and hygiene kits will be provided to the OFWs. Medical personnel are also on standby for proper monitoring while waiting for their swab test results. 

The swab test result has a turnaround time of 48 hours from the time the specimens were referred to the partner laboratory. If results are negative, the OFW can now go home and the City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (CESU) will continue to monitor them.

As per Dr. Alexander Magmanlac of the CESU, it is agreed that the OFW shall “continue with the 14 day quarantine and from time to time they will be called [by our nurse or the barangay health worker] or will be visited and monitored by their barangays… They can also call the CESU hotline if they experience symptoms such as fever, coughs, flu and difficulty in breathing.”

On the lookout for more partnerships with DOH-accredited and FDA-approved COVID-19 laboratories, Mayor REX Gatchalian expressed that the City Government has been “watching the list of accredited labs like a hawk” as the localized targeted mass testing helps quickly identify cases for immediate isolation or medical intervention.

It is estimated that Valenzuela now has a testing capacity of more than 100 specimens transported to its partner laboratories every day. The isolation units – Valenzuela City Town Hall for OFWs, Balai Banyuhay for COVID-19 asymptomatic patients, Valenzuela City Astrodome, Dalandanan National High School, Meaco Hotel for positive COVID-19 frontliners and another rented hotel, are now up and running and currently houses those who need to be isolated following the Department of Health (DOH) protocols.

With the localized targeted mass testing in place since April 11, Valenzuela City’s isolation units are all well-utilized and allocated with proper resources, looking optimistically at the “surging cases” as it provides a clearer picture for preparation.

“The number of positives [COVID-19 cases] are growing because we are testing more...  With this new capacity we know that there will be an increase but we are not going to be alarmed because number one, it is better to know... Number two, so that we can act and we can put them in a central isolation unit or we put them in a hospital… We are getting a clear picture, but is there a reason to be alarmed? No, because the LGU is prepared together with our hospital partners,” Mayor REX stated.

Valenzuela City has now received 1,362 tests results since the start of the mass testing from April 11 to May 07, an indicator that all Persons Under Monitoring (PUM), Persons Under Investigation (PUI), COVID-19 retests, frontliners and vulnerable sectors are now being further identified if they have the disease or not.  

Of the 1,362 test results, 129 tested positive for COVID-19 and 1,233 tested negative. The total number of confirmed cases in Valenzuela City is now at 132, with 24 recoveries and eight (8) deaths as of May 07, 2020.

Still, Valenzuela City is continually manning its central isolation units and is not stopping on finding more partnerships with COVID-19 accredited testing centers, making sure that the COVID-19 pandemic fight is consistent and monitoring does not go off-hand.

“Also we are working on our fourth partnership... Just waiting for the Memorandum of Agreement. This [fourth partner] is awaiting their Stage 5 [accreditation from DOH] which they forecast to get by next week. But like what we did with the The Medical City, we signed the MOA that this will only take effect only if they become Stage 5,” Mayor REX shared.