Davao City Mayor Inday Sara Duterte has urged private sector employers to conduct symptom-screening rather than the Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) to screen the health of their workers.
Mayor Sara said the use of RDT has been discouraged because of test result inaccuracy, thus, a waste of money for employers.
“Ingon sa studies, by the time nga naga-positive ang rapid test, that will be one week after ka nagkasakit. So, possible nga nakatakod naka within one week bago ka pa man nagpositive sa imong rapid test (According to studies, by the time, that the rapid test will come out positive – that will be one week after you became sick. So, it is possible that you already infected others before your rapid test comes out positive),” she said.
Also, Mayor Sara cited a Department of Health (DOH) advice for employers to conduct symptom-screening on their employees every day. The mayor noted that fever is not the only symptom of Covid-19.
“When we say symptom-screening, dili lang kanang temperature check kung naa bay kalintura. I-check ang ilang tutunlan, i-check kung naa bay ubo, sip on (When we say symptom-screening, it is not only the temperature check if they have a fever. It includes checking the throat, and checking if they have a cough and cold),” she added.
Employees manifesting either one of the symptoms such as cough and cold, loss of the sense of smell, sore throat, diarrhea, and fever are considered suspects of Covid-19 and should immediately be referred to the company doctor. The doctor should then assess based on DOH protocols whether the employee will undergo a 14-day quarantine, or should be sent for reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing. CIO
