Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 11) – Marikina City Mayor Marcy Teodoro has assured that the 66 public market workers who were found to be “reactive” in their rapid COVID-19 testing have been placed under quarantine.
A reactive test result indicates that signs of the condition being tested for in a patient are present.
“We are not saying they tested positive of the virus,” Teodoro said of the 66 individuals. “They are still reactive of the rapid tests that we did. Rapid test is a screening tool, in compliance with the recommendation of the World Health Organization in their strategy to screen, test, and treat.”
Teodoro said some of the workers are under home quarantine, while others are confined in the city’s designated quarantine facilities.
“We do not allow them to go outside of their quarantine places until they receive their confirmatory swab test results,” he said.
The mayor added that he is hoping to receive by tomorrow the confirmatory reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) results of the 66 workers to determine if they have contracted the virus or not.
He said this is the reason why the workers were labeled for the meantime as “reactive” of the city government-led rapid testing among 2,000 tenants, vendors, workers, and helpers at the Marikina Public Market.
Teodoro disclosed that out of the 66 “reactive” workers, around 45 are non-Marikina residents.
With this finding, the mayor said the city is intensifying contact tracing efforts and coordinating with nearby local government units to contain the spread of COVID-19 in Marikina.
“We found out the source of infection is not in the market, but in their place of residence,” he stressed. “We are strengthening our contact tracing efforts with this.”
Marikina Public Market Administrator Mon Viliran announced that the market will be closed in the next few days to undergo massive disinfection.
“We will also set a schedule for selling and buying in the market,” said Viliran in a Facebook post.
The rapid testing on Wednesday among Marikina Public Market workers was part of the city government’s enhanced targeted mass testing activities.
The local government did a mass testing last week among tricycle drivers, where only four found positive of the virus.
Teodoro shared that the city’s mass testing is now concentrated in workplaces, particularly among businesses in the industrial and manufacturing sectors.
“With our efforts, I think we can be downgraded already to modified general community quarantine,” he said. “But realistically, we cannot downgrade if the whole Metro Manila will not be downgraded.”
As of 3 p.m. on Thursday, Marikina has 245 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 89 considered as active cases. In addition, there are 27 fatalities in the city due to the contagion and 129 recoveries.
