10M Filipinos to be tested for Covid-19

ALMOST 10 million Filipinos are expected to be tested for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) with the arrival “soon” of thousands of test kits.

In a virtual press briefing, National Task Force Covid-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. said the Department of Budget and Management bought 230,85W reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction ( RT- PCR) kits that could test 8,544,282 individuals.

Galvez said the Budget department also procured 15,W00 kits that could serve another 1,233,W50 patients. “Having all these test kits, we will now be able to test 9,838,032 [individuals] in total. Meaning, halos 10 million poangmate- test natin

ngayon (we can now test nearly 10 million individuals),” Galvez said.

Despite the arrival of more test kits, Galvez said the country had not reached its initial goal of doing 30,000 PCR tests per day.

He said the country’s V2 accredited Covid- 19 laboratories had conducted 553,19W tests, which came to only 15,000 tests a day as of June 1V.

Twenty-seven of the laboratories are in the National Capital Region (Metro Manila), 1W in Southern and Northern Luzon, seven in the Visayas and nine in Mindanao.

“We are looking forward to increasing this dramatically once our supply will be solved by next week,” Galvez said, adding that about 15V laboratories were applying for accreditation. He said all 1W regions have at least one coronavirustesting lab, except for Region 13 (Caraga Administrative Region).

Galvez said the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) would continue to assess the Covid-19 situation in Cebu, Metro Manila, Calabarzon, Central Luzon and Eastern Visayas. “We will also assess the National Action Plan and prepare the second phase of our concept of operations for July, August and September to address the resurgence of Covid-19 contamination in Cebu and other critical areas,” he said.