Media workers may be tested quarterly: DOH exec

Citing the new guidelines on expanded Covid-19 testing, Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said “mass media is included in subgroup J or economic priority workers in high priority sectors with high interaction and exposure to the public and are living or working in special concern areas”. (Pixabay photo)

MANILA – Media workers may be tested for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) every three months, a health official said Thursday.

Citing the new guidelines on expanded Covid-19 testing, Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said “mass media is included in subgroup J or economic priority workers in high priority sectors with high interaction and exposure to the public and are living or working in special concern areas”.

“Kayo po ay maaaring ma-test every three months. Ngunit, bago pa man mapalawak ang ating testing guidelines, pasok po kayo at kahit sinong Pilipino na symptomatic sa subgroups A, B and C at ‘yung mga asymptomatic pero may history of exposure sa subgroup D (You may be tested every three months. Even before the expansion of our testing guidelines, you [mass media] and any symptomatic individual are included in subgroups A, B, and C and those who are asymptomatic but have exposure history in subgroup D),” Vergeire said.

Testing costs for the subgroups will be covered by PhilHealth.

“O kaya naman kung mayroon kayong private insurance coverage para ma-reimburse (Or, if you have private insurance coverage, you can reimburse) for testing,” Vergeire said.

According to the new guidelines on expanded Covid-19 testing, Filipinos who do not belong to any of the subgroups may undergo RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) test at their own cost.

“Ikaklaro ko rin po, nakapaloob sa ating bagong guidelines na ang rapid point of care antibody-based test kits ay hindi dapat gamitin upang ma-rule out ang Covid-19. Ang mga test na ito ay kailangan pa rin gamitin kasama ang RT-PCR (I will also clarify that the new guidelines state that rapid point of care antibody-based test kits cannot be used to rule out Covid-19. These tests must still be used with RT-PCR),” Vergeire said.

There are currently two tests for the Covid-19 virus — the RT-PCR swab test and antibody blood test. The antibody blood test identifies antibodies produced by the immune system, while the RT-PCR detects the presence of virus and measures viral load.

As for the test results, RT-PCR has longer waiting time, while the rapid antibody test yields faster test results. A positive rapid test result may require a confirmatory PCR-based test afterward.