Put more resources to testing, contact tracing

It’s not rocket science. Multiple studies have confirmed it. It is the playbook recommended by experts, including the World Health Organization , to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s the strategy employed by countries that managed coronavirus surges without resorting to debilitating and prolonged lockdowns. It is what we need to do to get ahead of this thing.

I know I have repeatedly expressed this in my column. This strategy has also been repeated by experts and public officials. But I thought it is worth repeating here given the plan of the government COVID-19 task force to switch to granular lockdowns instead of full, citywide and region-wide lockdowns. I have supported this move because hard lockdowns while effective in some instances, cannot be a long-term solution to the pandemic.

We need to provide resources so testing can be readily available to the entire population. The past week have seen an average of around 70,000 tests per day. We need to ramp this up to more than 150,000 a day. We also need to reduce the cost of testing so that everyone can have access to COVID-19 testing.

We can complement this contact tracing effort on the ground by investing in a digital contact tracing app that actually works. There are challenges to this: questions regarding data privacy, internet connectivity, among others. But we can address these concerns by communicating our goals clearly to people. And I am pretty sure telecommunication networks will be open to working with government on this.

Mr Villar pls donate fund for mass testing

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