Trinidad mayor Judith Cajes assures the public that the six(6) locally stranded individuals (LSIs) who tested Covid positive have not left their respective homes after being placed on home quarantine, according to reports.
Reports say that on Monday, July 13, 2020, the LSIs who tested positive tor Covid were already released from the local government unit (LGU)-managed facility and now in home quarantine. They have already been in quarantine for 28 days. The LSIs already took at least three (3) tests prior to their release.
The issue stems from the fact that the LSIs were placed in home quarantine prior to the release of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR ) results, which indicate positive outcomes
She assured that even if the Covid positive LSIs are under home quarantine, they have not gone out of their homes up to this time.
Trinidad mayor said the LSIs were released to undergo home quarantine even if the results of the PCR test were pending and instead had the LSIs take the chemiluminescence enzyme immunoassay (CLIA) test.
In the CLIA test, which is a more sophisticated version of the rapid antibody test, the LSIs tested negative for active viral infections. It means the LSIs already were recovering from their infections. They took the CLIA test on their 22nd day of quarantine.
Earlier, the LSIs showed signs of having infections via the rapid antibody test, and it was for this reason that their quarantine was extended and subjected to a PCR test on the 17th day of the quarantine. The 17th day of the quarantine was on June 30, 2020.
Yet, the PCR test results were not released until July 11, 2020; and these results were made public on July 12, 2020.
The mayor said that throughout the LSIs’ stay in the quarantine area, they have remained asymptomatic.
She said that there will be contact tracing activities that will be conducted to determine the close contacts of the six (6) Covid-positive LSIs.