The World Health Organization said Wednesday RT-PCR (real time polymerase chain reaction) tests should be for symptomatic people, especially the elderly – 60 years and above – and the immunocompromised, or those with impaired immune system.
“It would be more prudent to reserve testing for symptomatic people, especially symptomatic elderly and vulnerable people,” said WHO representative to the Philippines Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe.
“Targeted testing is a better use of the resources on RT-PCR test and the hypothesis that if you have a confirmed case in a household and other people are asymptomatic there is no need to confirm testing, you just need to assume that it’s Omicron, because it’s milder its more prudent to just isolate or quarantine as the case may be,” he added.
Abeyasinghe said it would not be necessary to test and confirm every infection unless the patient belongs to vulnerable groups or the elderly.
“It’s also not very useful in testing other asymptomatic people in a household once you have a confirmed omicron case in a household because of the higher transmissibility they are very likely to get infected or would have got already infected.”
Other countries are also practicing prioritization of confirmatory swab tests or RT-PCR tests, infectious disease specialist Dr. Edsel Salvaña earlier said, citing Israel and the Canadian province of Ontario where those below 60 years old were given antigen tests.
“If you overload RT-PCR tests, the turnaround time becomes longer. Medicine should be given within 5 days of onset of symptoms,” Salvaña added.
Meanwhile, two manufacturers of self-administered COVID-19 test kits are seeking certificates of product registration from the Food and Drug Authority, the Department of Health said.
The FDA is “expediting” the review process so that Filipinos can access these home test kits, said DOH spokesperson and Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire.
“These are not yet available in the Philippines because the manufacturers have just submitted their application to register their product and not because they have failed the regulatory clearance we process,” Vergeire said in a virtual press conference.
The availability of the product in the market is expected to address the rising demand for COVID-19 test kits in the Philippines as the country experiences a new surge in fresh cases.
Some 67,500 people have been undergoing RT-PCR tests daily and several laboratories are having a hard time processing this volume, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said in a Palace briefing late Monday evening.
“There are also laboratories that have yet to submit their results as some of their personnel are in isolation or in quarantine due to infection,” Duque said.
President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the DOH to procure more RT-PCR test kits to meet the demand, while the FDA has yet to approve the self-administered testing alternatives.
In related developments, the World Health Organization Technical Advisory Group on COVID-19 Vaccine Composition (TAG-Co-VAC) said existing vaccines were less effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 disease in people who have contracted the new Omicron variant.
But the same preliminary data also showed that protection against severe disease, which is what the jabs were especially intended to do, “is more likely to be preserved.”
WHO experts warned that repeating booster doses of the original COVID-19 vaccines was not a viable strategy against emerging variants and called for new jabs that better protect against transmission.
An expert group created by the World Health Organization to assess the performance of COVID-19 vaccines said simply providing fresh jabs of existing vaccines as new variants emerge was not the best way to fight the pandemic.
In a statement, the TAG-Co-VAC noted that vaccination strategy based on repeated booster doses of the original vaccine composition was unlikely to be appropriate or sustainable.
It is also developing vaccines that not only protect people against falling seriously ill but could also better prevent infection and transmission in the first place.
“COVID-19 vaccines that have high impact on prevention of infection and transmission, in addition to the prevention of severe disease and death, are needed and should be developed,” TAG-Co-VAC said.
Until such vaccines are available, and as the SARS-CoV-2 virus evolves, it said the composition of current COVID-19 vaccines might need to be updated.
Meanwhile, Malacanang assured the public that vaccines, regardless of brand, and being vaccinated would help protect against severe forms of COVID-19, whatever variant it was.
“Even the highly transmissible Omicron, we are not helpless; we can do something about it. Get vaccinated, any brand so we can be protected,” acting presidential spokesman Karlo Nograles said.