TESTING CAPACITY NOW 34K PER DAY – PALACE

THE Philippines now has the capacity to conduct 34,000 tests a day for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), surpassing its goal of 30,000, Malacañang said on Tuesday. Roque Palace Jr., spokesman however, admitted Harry that the current testing capacity has not been maximized for lack of supply and equipment.

“Kan in a nagsalita na si DoH Undersecretary Rosario Vergeire at kan yang nil in aw na hindi lang natinnaabotang 30,000 target testing capacity daily, lumampas natayo with 34,000 with 49 accredited laboratories (Department of Health Undersecretary Rosario Vergeire has clarified that we have not just reached 30,000 tests a day, we exceeded the target with 49 accredited laboratories),” Roque said during a virtual press briefing.

“Pero hindi na tin ito nam a xi mizeka si, ay ons aD oH, may problemaparinsa supply and equipment ( But this was not maximized, according to the DoH, due to supply and equipment problem),” he added. Based on data from the Health department, a total of 358,676 tests have been conducted as of May 31. Earlier, Roque credited the government’s Test, Trace, Treat or T 3 program for the increase in the testing capacity. He said the government was working to improve the efficiency of testing laboratories to maximize capability. Coronavirus testing czar Vivencio “Vince” Dizon previously said the national government wanted to step up its daily capacity for Covid-19 tests to 50,000. Vergeire said while the country has reached its maximum capacity, problems like lack of supplies and manpower remain. Meanwhile, a group of pathologists proposed the formulation of an expanded targeted testing strategy to flatten the Covid-19 curve.

The Philippine Society of Pathologists Inc. (PSP) said the diagnostic testing strategy will intensify the “population base of persons to be tested” in order to identify the asymptomatic carriers who shed SARS-CoV-2 — severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 — the virus that causes Covid-19.

“These asymptomatic individuals showed low prevalence of infection. Hence, pooling their specimens can help a lot to reduce the number of testing thereby conserving our already limited resources,” PSP President Dr. Roberto Padua Jr. told The Manila Times in a text message.

Padua explained that the strategy would not test all of the 110 million Filipinos but rather escalate testing among asymptomatic persons who are at risk and those communities with high prevalence.

He said it would be defined as an “enhanced, wider based purposive testing,” designed to test a greater number of asymptomatic populations at risk.

“A good example of application of this strategy is for the returning OFWs (overseas Filipino workers). You can test more persons with a minimal number of testing procedures thereby conserving our test reagents, faster turnaround time,” Padua said.

The pathologists said this would have a significant impact on the waiting time of quarantined OFWs.

Padua said the Smart Pooled Sample Testing strategy could improve the turn around time and reduce the workload of laboratories.

The group also recommended initial antibody testing using instrumented laboratory- based methods like Elisa, or enzymelinked immunosorbent assay, and Eclia, or enzyme-chemiluminescence immunoassay.

“The rationale of the algorithm using instrumented antibody testing is that laboratory- based antibody tests are already available in the market,” it said.

The group said the use of rapid antibody test kits was not recommended because of “poor sensitivity and specificity.”