By John Clifford Lintao
THE Makati City government hinted on conducting a pooled COVID-19 testing for its constituents less than a week from now, said Makati City Mayor Abby Binay.
First on the list are market vendors, tricycle, pedicab, and jeepney drivers, forming part of the city government’s target of testing an initial 10,000 individuals.
Binay explained that under the pooled PCR testing method, swab samples will be taken from a pool size of either five, 10, or 20 individuals.
“Ang uunahin po muna nila is 20. Kapag naipakita nila na madaming magpa-positive, liliitan nila nang liliitan ‘yung pool size hanggang five, hanggang ma-determine kung sino ‘yung positive,” Binay said.
“Ang maganda po diyan, instead of running an individual test, you can run one test with five samples,” she added.
“Ito pong mga public market vendors, sila po ‘yung uunahin nating ipa-test. Susunod naman ay ‘yung mga drivers ng pampublikong transportasyon, itong mga tricycle driver, pedicab driver, at jeepney driver,” Binay said.
Makati City would however be shouldering just half of its cost as Binay claimed the remaining half would be paid for by their private counterparts, apparently referring to private sector partners. The cost of the pooled testing is pegged at P2.5 million.
If successful, the Makati City Mayor said the pooled testing could be replicated in other cities. “Hindi po magiging pagod ‘yung ating laboratories at saka ‘yung ating resources kasi instead of running it individually, we are running it as a pool,” Binay said.
Earlier, Binay signed a memorandum of agreement with Project Ark making Makati City the pilot site for pooled testing.