DOH: PBA referee should’ve been tested with RT-PCR anew, not antigen test

FILE -Games inside the PBA Bubble. DENISON REY A. DALUPANG

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday said that the referee working for the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) bubble in Pampanga should have taken a real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test, instead of an antigen test, to see if he really contracted COVID-19.

This comes after the PBA, the Clark Development Corporation (CDC), and the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) said that the referee, who was asymptomatic, may have been a case of “false positive” after his RT-PCR test yielded a positive result. The referee then took another test, lthis time an antigen test, that yielded a negative result.

The referee is currently on a strict 14-day quarantine at the Athletes’ Village in New Clark City, and will undergo another RT-PCR test. His close contacts, meanwhile, will also undergo for RT-PCR testing on Saturday, Oct. 24.

“It would have been better if he was tested again by an RT-PCR and not antigen [test],” DOH spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire told reporters in an online press briefing.

According to the DOH spokeswoman, the antigen test results would only be accurate if a person is “infectious, has a high viral load, and is symptomatic.”

“So it might be that when he [was] tested with antigen, the patient is just pre-symptomatic, the viral load is still not that high kaya nag-negative siya sa (that’s why he tested negative) on the antigen test,” Vergeire explained.

“Kailangan lang po maulit agad yung RT-PCR [test] niya, wag na ho magpa-Sabado pa. Sana po maulit na yung RT-PCR para po tayo ng mas better appreciation nitong mga test na isinagawa sa pasyente,” Vergeire later said.

(His RT-PCR test should be done immediately, it should not be conducted until Saturday. His RT-PCR test should be repeated so that we will have a better appreciation of the test done to the patient.)