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Contagions increase in Quito amid controversy over COVID-19 test
By Newsroom Infobae
July 15, 2020
Quito, Jul 15 (EFE) .- The controversy over the effectiveness of thousands of COVID-19 tests carried out by the municipality of Quito cast doubt on the extent of infections in a city where cases have almost tripled since the de-escalation began. 3 of June.
The alert arose after a study carried out in Mexico on tests such as those acquired by the Quito City Council, which mentions that they have "little reliability and sensitivity", given that a high viral load is required to detect the virus, Councilman Bernardo told Efe. Abbot.
Controversy over evidence
Given the information from Mexico, the City Council requested a study from the University of the Americas (UDLA), which concluded that "the tests are good when there are people with high viral loads."
"The UDLA says that they remain at 94% sensitivity, as long as there are 500 copies" per microliter, Abad said.
But the City Council has presented a report from the Korean laboratory KTC (Korea Testing Certification) that "established that the sensitivity of the Isopollo test is 95% in viral loads of less than 100 copies per microliter."
The decision of the Mayor's Office to continue with the massive samplings amidst the controversy raises "many doubts" for Abad, considering that the issue of the sensitivity of the evidence is not clear.
Their suspicion increased once the municipality revealed that "a 50,000-test batch will be replaced in a 10-day time frame with the supplier" and that "a fine of $ 174,000 has been imposed on the supplier."
"If everything was legal in the purchase, as they say, how can they execute a guarantee?" Asked the councilman.
He also points out alleged "inconsistencies" in the process of acquiring the thousands of tests by the municipality and assures that those that arrived "were not PCR tests but RT Lamp", different from what was announced.
WEEKS COME "VERY HARD FOR QUITO"
Abad said that, so far, the City Council would have carried out just over 15,000 free tests and the "majority, if not all" of the acquired ones, "expire between September and October", so he doubted that all of them would be used before expire.
For the councilman, "the optimum" would be for the population to submit to the tests en masse, but the high cost of the tests complicates the situation of a city hit by the economic crisis.
Given this, laboratories and private companies have come together to cut costs almost in half and facilitate access to the population.
"It was evident what happened in Italy and Spain, where he concentrated on doing tests waiting for the virus to knock on your door and what this initiative wants to do is go find the virus before the virus knocks on the door of hospitals "Santiago Aguirre, manager of the Synlab laboratory, told Efe.
That firm and Simed, provider of equipment and medical supplies, allied with the Dk Management Services group, operator of several shopping centers, to take samples in several of these spaces and facilitate access for the population.
Cristina Moshenek, DK manager, told Efe that the more people know what their situation is in the face of the disease, the better individual and even public health actions can be taken to control the progression of the coronavirus at a critical moment for the city .
According to official data, on June 3, when the de-escalation began, Quito reported 3,842 infected, a number that rose to 10,035 today, with a health system that has been working to its maximum capacity for days.
For Aguirre, the quarantine flattened the peak of infections, but there was not a sufficient amount of evidence to clarify the situation, especially for the asymptomatic, and to make de-escalation more effective.
And for this reason she warned: "We are going to have a very hard end of July and beginning of August for Quito."
Contagions increase in Quito amid controversy over COVID-19 test
By Newsroom Infobae
July 15, 2020
Quito, Jul 15 (EFE) .- The controversy over the effectiveness of thousands of COVID-19 tests carried out by the municipality of Quito cast doubt on the extent of infections in a city where cases have almost tripled since the de-escalation began. 3 of June.
The alert arose after a study carried out in Mexico on tests such as those acquired by the Quito City Council, which mentions that they have "little reliability and sensitivity", given that a high viral load is required to detect the virus, Councilman Bernardo told Efe. Abbot.
Controversy over evidence
Given the information from Mexico, the City Council requested a study from the University of the Americas (UDLA), which concluded that "the tests are good when there are people with high viral loads."
"The UDLA says that they remain at 94% sensitivity, as long as there are 500 copies" per microliter, Abad said.
But the City Council has presented a report from the Korean laboratory KTC (Korea Testing Certification) that "established that the sensitivity of the Isopollo test is 95% in viral loads of less than 100 copies per microliter."
The decision of the Mayor's Office to continue with the massive samplings amidst the controversy raises "many doubts" for Abad, considering that the issue of the sensitivity of the evidence is not clear.
Their suspicion increased once the municipality revealed that "a 50,000-test batch will be replaced in a 10-day time frame with the supplier" and that "a fine of $ 174,000 has been imposed on the supplier."
"If everything was legal in the purchase, as they say, how can they execute a guarantee?" Asked the councilman.
He also points out alleged "inconsistencies" in the process of acquiring the thousands of tests by the municipality and assures that those that arrived "were not PCR tests but RT Lamp", different from what was announced.
WEEKS COME "VERY HARD FOR QUITO"
Abad said that, so far, the City Council would have carried out just over 15,000 free tests and the "majority, if not all" of the acquired ones, "expire between September and October", so he doubted that all of them would be used before expire.
For the councilman, "the optimum" would be for the population to submit to the tests en masse, but the high cost of the tests complicates the situation of a city hit by the economic crisis.
Given this, laboratories and private companies have come together to cut costs almost in half and facilitate access to the population.
"It was evident what happened in Italy and Spain, where he concentrated on doing tests waiting for the virus to knock on your door and what this initiative wants to do is go find the virus before the virus knocks on the door of hospitals "Santiago Aguirre, manager of the Synlab laboratory, told Efe.
That firm and Simed, provider of equipment and medical supplies, allied with the Dk Management Services group, operator of several shopping centers, to take samples in several of these spaces and facilitate access for the population.
Cristina Moshenek, DK manager, told Efe that the more people know what their situation is in the face of the disease, the better individual and even public health actions can be taken to control the progression of the coronavirus at a critical moment for the city .
According to official data, on June 3, when the de-escalation began, Quito reported 3,842 infected, a number that rose to 10,035 today, with a health system that has been working to its maximum capacity for days.
For Aguirre, the quarantine flattened the peak of infections, but there was not a sufficient amount of evidence to clarify the situation, especially for the asymptomatic, and to make de-escalation more effective.
And for this reason she warned: "We are going to have a very hard end of July and beginning of August for Quito."