More than two years into the pandemic, with new variants continuing to appear, rising dengue cases, and monkeypox in the horizon, people are wondering how we can continue to spur the economy, allow people to move around, and still manage to minimize infections to a point when we can really live with the viruses.
Recently, Cardinal Santos Medical Center (CSMC) hosted another episode of their webicon series on Zoom and Facebook Live to bring together health experts and the business sector to figure out exactly where we are and how to move forward without going into the extreme of locking down again.
For several months now, I had been joining my voice with that of independent health experts in calling for scaling of COVID-19 testings and tracings as the economy opens up. Like them, I believe that prolonged lockdowns alone will not help us get back on our feet. Lockdowns are supposed to be temporary measures to give the healthcare system and workers some breathing space to “catch up” during major surges.
Recently, we have been seeing a decline in cases here in the National Capital Region. We are now at Level 3 and contemplating a possible Level 2 before the end of the year. However, knowing the nature of the “beast” that is COVID-19, we know that it is airborne and, with the dominant, highly contagious Delta variant in the country, can easily infect even those who are already vaccinated. So, we can let people out, have workers return to work…..BUT we need to have quick, easy, and affordable ways to test these people so that in case they turn out positive, they can be readily isolated to prevent further infections.
This is NOT the Watsons rapid antigen test kit. This is just a photo from @dronepicr’s Flickr account used under a Creative Commons license. Source: https://flic.kr/p/2kTB8mC
RT-PCRs are just too expensive at around P4,000 per test. Employers will not be able to afford these to test their returning workers on a regular basis. More affordable and easy-to-administer rapid antigen tests that can immediately yield results are what we need.
The good news is finally here. Starting today, October 25, 2021, select Watsons stores will carry FDA-certified COVID-19 antigen test kits with a price range of only PhP 399 – PhP 500. These will also be available in ALL Watsons stores nationwide by November 25.
