May 28 - COVID-19 testing lagging behind

It is good that the GCQ is being extended until June 15. Because of the delays in getting test results, the authorities have no idea who may be contagious.

Yesterday the Negros authorities:

• Only received 11 test results from the lab in Cebu.
• Submitted 40 samples for testing.
• Currently there are 437 outstanding samples that have been submitted and are awaiting results.

It seems that as Cebu has more cases the time period for Negros to get results is delayed. 437 outstanding results is a lot.

 

Yes the approval process has been taking a long time. Silliman and NOPH both applied to be testing facilities.

Has anyone heard any progress on this?

 

Assuming those waiting for their results are under quarantine anyway, what exactly is the point of leaving the province under GCQ?

Not to mention the fact that everybody already forgot what GCQ actually once meant, it's business as usual with few exceptions. I guess most people assume wearing a mask actually protects them, which is why almost everybody does it while neglecting any other measures.

 

Nobody seems to be able to answer that question, Jens. You look for a logical point but they think there is no point in being logical because, after all, we all might get SICK. This is the first pandemic where we quarantined whole communities instead of just the sick, the original intent of "quarantine". The world does it the new way because that is what the Chinese did in Wuhan (the US, even Dr. Fauci, is changing their thinking on that now). Wuhan should know, right? They created it. I agree also that the original Dumaguete GCQ was must less than whatever this is; no elder bans or rainbow colored passes were required but now it is like an ECQ except that the people asking for passes are at the mall entrances rather than the checkpoints. If there is a going to be a quarantine, people should call it what it really is: "ECQ", not "GCQ". I will not comment on "masks" because I am in deep trouble here for questioning the wisdom of using hospital surgical masks in public spaces, ie by posting here a common meme circulating on the net with no particular political flavor, and was accused of being a troll for that.

 

WRONG!

The word quarantine was never just for the sick. Quarantine has always been for healthy people who may have been (or will be) exposed to the sick. Isolation is the word used for people who are sick.

Isolation separates sick people with a contagious disease from people who are not sick.

Quarantine separates and restricts the movement of people who were exposed to a contagious disease to see if they become sick. These people may have been exposed to a disease and do not know it, or they may have the disease but do not show symptoms.

https://www.hhs.gov/answers/public-...e-between-isolation-and-quarantine/index.html

 

No point in making plans for Christmas then?!

 

No problem, just your plan is to stay home

 

Thanks for clarifying this situation and reinforcing what I said. More to the point, the CDC tells us:

"As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explains, the practice of a quarantine specifically involves:

… the separation of a person or group of people reasonably believed to have been exposed to a communicable disease but not yet symptomatic, from others who have not been so exposed, to prevent the possible spread of the communicable disease.

The takeaway: People are put in quarantine when they are not currently sick, but have been or may have been exposed to a communicable disease. This can help stop the spread of the disease."

Your clarification and that of the CDC indicates that quarantine is separation of those, believed to be/have been exposed to a contagious disease, from the COMMUNITY.

But we are quarantining the entire COMMUNITY, both exposed and not exposed. That is because we do not know if a few members have been exposed, or many. Then what is the end game?

So your more accurate definition simply reinforces what I said: "This is the first pandemic where we quarantined whole communities instead of just the sick,...". I should have said "instead of just the exposed or believed to have been exposed", ack the separate definition of "isolated" from the known to be sick.

Consider even the names, ECQ and GCQ. Enhanced COMMUNITY quarantine and General COMMUNITY quarantine.

We are "quarantining" the whole community from the whole community. Does not make sense.

Such a soft and medical-sounding term.

But we are actually attempting is a community "LOCKDOWN" to keep the virus away from the community. At least we should not be shy and call it exactly that. I have never heard of "lockdown" as a medical procedure but perhaps you have. I believe this is named after what was done in Wuhan by an authoritarian government who could actually do a lockdown well, not that I like it and not that it worked extremely well.

 

Advanced Merry Christmas, stay home stay safe.