DoH seeks expanded testing

In order to cover more sectors of the population amid easing restrictions, the Department of Health (DoH) on Wednesday said that it will be expanding its prioritized groups for testing COVID-19.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that this move comes as more sectors resume operations.

Vergeire said that after initially starting with six groups, the DoH will soon include two more under the updated expanded testing guidelines.

“Now that we are entering a higher capacity for testing of almost 20,000 in a day, we have decided to expand our testing further,” she said during the briefing.

Among the groups that will be included were under subgroup G which are individuals residing in areas with reported clustering of cases and community transmission, subgroup H or frontliners in tourist zones, and subgroup I or employees working in manufacturing companies.

It will also be expanded to include subgroup J which are economy workers such as among drivers, conductors, waiters, and teachers among others.

Now that we are entering a higher capacity for testing of almost 20,000 in a day, we have decided to expand our testing further.

“We want to slowly open our economy so that our employees and businesses will have a safeguard that they know they can be tested and ensure their customers that there is no infection within their establishment,” she said.

She also emphasized the importance of immediately identifying individuals infected in a community with a high-risk transmission for contact tracing purposes.

“Part of the expanded testing guidelines would be testing (a) specific street or testing a specific building if we see a rise in the number of cases, clustering or if we see that they are part of the areas with community transmission,” she added.

Vergeire said that the guidelines will be implemented within one or two days once it has been posted on the DoH website.

After acquiring a testing capacity reaching 8,000 tests daily, DoH had also expanded its list of prioritized sectors with initially testing only severe and critical cases but also asymptomatic and mild cases.

Even other front liners such as barangay health response teams and those with co-morbidities were likewise added in the listed groups.