Vergeire defends non-testing of asymptomatic people: 85% of carriers have symptoms

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire has defended the government’s policy of not testing asymptomatic people with no exposure to COVID-19 patients, saying that 85% of COVID-19 transmission came from symptomatic individuals.

Vergeire made the position since the government was criticized for not conducting mass testing.

“85 percent of those who transmitted the disease were symptomatic. Kaya po pinaglalaban namin na huwag i-test ang walang symptoms kasi it would give a false sense of security,” Vergeire said in a DOH forum.

“Kahit po RT-PCR (Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction) ang gamitin, it would still miss one third of the time. Hindi rin siya perfect. Hindi sila 100 percent. Kaya kung i-tetest ang asymptomatic [na walang COVID-19 exposure], it is not cost effective and it is not rational,” she said.

Vergeire said the government is focused on improving its testing capacity which is expected to reach 30,000 tests per day by end of May, and testing asymptomatic people with no exposure to COVID-19 will not help the country achieve that goal.

“Mula pa noong umpisa, hindi namin ginagamit ang term na mass testing kasi it might give the wrong impression na lahat, ite-test [for COVID-19]. What we have is expanded testing na progressive. From testing the severe, critical and vulnerable, we included those with mild symptoms and those with a history of exposure [on COVID-19 patients],” Vergeire said.

“Kung ite-test natin iyong asymptomatic ngayon, bukas, the person could have a different set of exposure. Do we retake it again? That is not cost effective,” she added.

Vergeire, however, assured the public that the government has enough RT-PCR testing kits and rapid testing kits which test for presence of antibodies IgM (immunoglobulin) and IgG (immunoglobulin G).

Testing positive for IgM is a sign of active COVID-19 infection while having IgG indicates that a person has recently recovered.

“Hindi po kulang ang testing kits natin. We have enough testing kits for everybody. What we are having problems with is logistics dun sa supply na kasama ng testing kits [para maprocess]... 'yung mga galing abroad na reagents (chemicals) and other supplies, dahil na rin po sa international competition,” Vergeire said.

The Philippines has registered 12,942 COVID-19 cases so far. Of this number, 2,843 recovered while 837 died. — RSJ, GMA News