Manila allots P40 M for COVID mass testing
Manila Mayor Isko Moreno has signed an ordinance realigning P40 million of the city’s budget to purchase medical equipment and supplies to boost the local government’s efforts to test more people for coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19.
Moreno signed Ordinance 8657, which authorized the budgetary realignment to cover COVIDrelated expenses of the city government.
“We will use this funding to strengthen our health services,” he said. “We want to make COVID-19 testing accessible, efficient and free for all.”
The Manila city council approved the supplemental budget, which will be sourced from the city’s development fund.
About P20 million will be allocated for the procurement of COVID-19 testing reagents, P10 million for the maintenance and operating expenses of testing laboratories and P10 million for the purchase of medical equipment.
To date, the local government has two drive-through testing sites at the Andres Bonifacio Monument and Quirino Grandstand.
Manila has two walk-in testing facilities at the Ospital ng Sampaloc and Gat Andres Bonifacio Memorial Medical Center.
To process COVID-19 tests, Moreno said they are using serology testing machines from American health company Abbott, with accuracy of 99.6 percent for specificity and 100 percent for sensitivity.
Manila has four COVID-19 serology testing machines that can process more than 89,000 tests per month, according to Moreno. The city government rolled out yesterday mobile testing clinics in Pandacan and Tondo to test more residents for COVID-19.