THE GOVERNMENT is “aggressively” establishing more laboratories for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) testing, Malacañang said on Wednesday.
In an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque acknowledged the need to put up new laboratories to speed up the testing for Covid-19.
“We’re still aggressively pursuing the establishment of more laboratories because we don’t have enough,” Roque said.
The Philippines currently has 54 laboratories that have been accredited by the Department of Health (DOH) to conduct independent testing for Covid-19.
In his 11th weekly report to Congress, President Rodrigo Duterte noted that as of June 4, there are 140 laboratories that are currently being evaluated in a bid to boost the country’s testing capacity.
Duterte said around 112 of the 140 laboratories are already at Stage 3 and above.
As of June 4, a total of 396,914 tests for Covid-19 have been conducted on 366,423 individuals, a significant increase from 83,551 tests recorded on May 26.
Roque said the government needs to further ramp up the country’s testing capacity.
“You know, it’s not just the (laboratories’) capacity. It’s the actual testing that (is) being done so we need to improve not just the capacity but also to make sure that they all have (supplies) so that they can maximize their capacities,” he said.
National Task Force against Covid-19 deputy chief implementer Vince Dizon announced on June 4 the government’s plan to raise the testing capacity to 50,000 per day by the end of this month.
This, after Dizon said the Philippines’ capacity to conduct tests for Covid-19 has increased to nearly 42,000 a day.
Dizon also bared the plan to include asymptomatic individuals, especially those living in areas with high Covid-19 cases, in the expanded targeted testing for the disease.
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