Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto called on the government to run RT-PCR or swab tests for the coronavirus on people heading out of Metro Manila to their home provinces.

“Ang daming tao ngayon na ilang buwan nang nakaistambay, or sleeping rough, kumpol-kumpol (There are many people who have been stranded for months, or sleeping rough, huddled together). The same abundance of caution required of the few who attended the SONA (State of the Nation Address) should be applied to many,” Recto said in a statement on Wednesday, July 29.

The recent gathering of some 8,400 locally stranded individuals (LSIs) at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex sparked public concern. The stadium was packed with stranded persons, leaving it impossible to practice physical distancing.

The government said the LSIs were travelers picked up “from the streets,” and it had nowhere else to shelter them. The travelers were scheduled to leave the stadium for their provinces on July 25 and 26.

“In this grandstand of people are the prime candidates for mass testing,” Recto said on Wednesday.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s 5th SONA took place on Monday, July 27. Beforehand, people invited to physically attend the event at the Batasan Pambansa, including lawmakers and congressional staff, were subjected to swab tests.

“If we have tested for free those who’ve been on strict quarantine because they’re going to listen to a speech, then all the more we should test exposed individuals who are going home to their loved ones,” Recto said in his statement.

The senator said the national government should provide the swab tests for the travelers before they set out, and not leave it to the local government units (LGUs) of their destinations.

Recto noted that conditions at the places where the travelers were stranded “will check all the boxes in the list of a possible outbreak spot.” 

“A swab test will ensure that the coronavirus will not be hitchhiking to family reunions. Those positive will be flagged from boarding, and spare understaffed and underfunded LGUs and local hospitals from handling a ‘pasa load’ (additional load) from the national government,” he said.

It would be up to the “true experts and scientists” of the national government’s task force leading the pandemic response to study the problem and resolve it, the lawmaker said.

“We are also painfully aware of the shortage of test kits,” Recto added.

Jose Encabo, who leads the government’s Hatid Tulong program for LSIs, earlier said all travelers would be given a rapid test for the coronavirus. Only those whose rapid tests yield positive results would be given the more reliable RT-PCR or swab test.

Travelers with negative rapid test results would be allowed to proceed to their provinces, Encabo said.

Government coronavirus testing czar Vince Dizon announced on June 25 that all LSIs would be given a swab test before getting clearance to travel home. A fresh delivery of swab test kits had just arrived, Dizon said at the time.

However, it appears swab-testing travelers from Metro Manila has since been left to local governments receiving them. – Rappler.com