The Jalisco state government is widening the scope of its Covid-19 testing program with the implementation of a strategy it says “represents a paradigm shift in the detection of cases of the disease.”
The plan, called “Radar Jalisco: sistema activo y masivo de detección de casos Covid-19,” will take Jalisco from a “passive to an active model of testing” by tripling its testing capacity and carrying out 500 tests a day, says Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro.
“We are not going to wait for patients to come to health institutions to diagnose them, we are going to go and look for them,” he said.
Federal government stats reveal that as of April 15, Jalisco’s Public Health Laboratory (LESP) had carried out scarcely 3,000 tests since the start of the epidemic.
The new plan was elaborated by epidemiologists at the University of Guadalajara, which has installed testing labs at its two teaching hospitals – the Hospitales Civiles Juan I. Menchaca and Fray Antonio Alcalde – and at the Centro Universitario de Ciencias de la Salud (CUCS), its medical school campus.
In addition, the Unidad de Patología Clínica (UPC) on Avenida Mexico in Guadalajara has become the first private laboratory in Jalisco whose Covid-19 tests are certified by the federal regulator, the Instituto de Diagnóstico y Referencia Epidemiológica (INDRE), and don’t need secondary confirmation from the LESP. The private clinic has the capacity to perform 60 tests each day.
The “Radar Jalisco” plan involves installing as many as 20 sampling stations throughout the metropolitan area and other parts of the state, as well as a “drive-thru” module at the CUCS in Guadalajara, which began operating on Thursday. This sampling method has been employed successfully in other countries and reduces the attention time and the risk of infection, said UdG Rector Ricardo Villanueva.
The UdG has set up a call center so citizens who are concerned they might be infected can make appointments for a free test. Villanueva said the center will operate 24/7 and have the capacity to receive up to 1,400 calls a day using 116 telephone operators. This number – 333-540-3001 – will operate alongside the state’s Covid-19 hotline, 333-823-3220.
Patients who are tested will be informed whether they are infected with Covid-19 within 72 hours. If positive, they should take the necessary self-isolation steps.
Even though the new laboratories have been certified by Mexico’s health regulator, it is not clear whether all their confirmed positive cases will be added to the federal government’s official count.
For that reason, Jalisco Social Development Coordinator Anna Bárbara Casillas explained that, as of this Friday, there will be two Covid-19 daily counts for Jalisco: the one from the Federal Health Ministry, and one from state authorities that includes additional stats from the UdG’s labs and the INDRE-certified private clinic.
This will provide a clearer picture of the infection rate in Jalisco and identify and isolate coronavirus hot spots, Casillas said.
“We are not in a spirit of confrontation (with federal authorities),” Alfaro said. “We are going to continue making decisions that our university community is suggesting to us.”
The 50-million-peso cost of purchasing the 12,000 tests to be carried out over the next 30 days is being shared between the Jalisco government and the UdG.
Alfaro also said that he wants Jalisco to become the first state in Mexico to test all its public health sector workers.
The state government estimates that a total of 434 people, including UdG volunteers and state employees, will participate in “Radar Jalisco” over the coming month.