The Duterte administration must seriously consider the urgency of conducting mass testing for COVID-19 infection in its decision whether or not to extend the lockdown policy in the National Capital Region (NCR), the rest of Luzon, and elsewhere in the country.
It would be extremely difficult to implement initial selective and subsequent comprehensive mass testing in a dispersed and mobile population.
The projected start of mass testing after the lockdown expiration will be counter-productive.
The remaining days before the expiration of the lockdown in NCR and Luzon will not be sufficient to adequately conduct mass testing even for selected cases of persons under investigation (PUIs) and persons under monitoring (PUMs).
Any extension must be coupled with continued social amelioration packages for the disadvantaged sectors and displaced workers as well as steady food supply.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and leading medical experts like former Health Secretaries Esperanza Cabral and Manuel Dayrit have been exhorting that a lockdown cannot be effective without mass testing.
Stemming the spread of the novel coronavirus is very complicated and cannot be answered by isolation and social distancing alone because so many COVID-19 cases are asymptomatic.
These patients can unknowingly be virus hotbeds and contribute to the more rapid spread of the disease, thus making mass testing more crucial.
Mass testing can initially help segregate persons who are infected from those who are free from infection.
Besides COVID-19 test kits, the government must also prioritize the purchase of finger-prick blood test that will detect if the person already has the novel coronavirus antibodies, which means that he was infected by the virus, experienced very mild symptoms or was completely asymptomatic, and subsequently recovered without medical intervention.
Experts are saying that the presence of antibodies in persons who have recovered from the virus indicate that they would be immune and are protected from reinfection.
Such persons can safely return to work and school and help the country and the economy back to recovery.
China, South Korea and Iceland have employed antibody mass testing in their fight against the pandemic.
The United States, United Kingdom and Germany are reportedly embarking on mass testing to further contain the escalation of the novel coronavirus menace.
EDCEL C. LAGMAN