Gov't eyes 10,000 COVID-19 tests per day during Luzon-wide ECQ
The Philippine government is eyeing to increase tests for coronavirus disease up to 10,000 per day, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases said on Tuesday.
In a virtual press briefing, Nograles said during the period of enhanced community quarantine in Luzon, including Metro Manila, until April 30, the government wants to increase its health capacity.
"When we say increasing health capacity, that includes testing," he said.
Citing what the experts have said, Nograles said that in order for the government to properly manage the COVID-19 cases, "we need to increase the testing capacity in the country to 8,000 to 10,000 tests per day. We need to reach that."
Nograles said the government also has to have a 24-hour turnaround time to get the results of those persons under monitoring or patients under investigation.
"If we maximize our existing subnational laboratories, by April 13, our testing capacity will increase to 2,600 to 7,000 tests per day," he said.
The official said the Department of Health is also working to certify more subnational laboratories and with that, by April 20, the testing capacity could go up to 4,400 to 9,800 tests per day.
If by April 27, the government is able to establish big testing centers in strategic areas around the country, the tests per day could even jump to 13,000 to 20,000 per day, he said.
"That's why we need additional two weeks or more (to implement the ECQ) so that we can reach that level," he said, citing this was why the IATF and President Rodrigo Duterte have decided to extend the Luzon-wide lockdown until April 30 from original schedule of midnight of April 13.
"We really need to extend the ECQ up to April 30," he said.
Currently, there are only about eight laboratories which could process about over 1,000 tests per day.
Nograles said the authorities should also immediately isolate the PUIs or positive, mild, moderate, severe or critical condition or those COVID-19 patients, he said.
Nograles underscored the need to immediately conduct contact-tracing.
The official said the game plan of the government is to "push back the peak" in COVID-19 cases as far as year 2021.
"And we hope by that time, there is already a vaccine for this," he said.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the DOH reported that there were 3,764 COVID-19 cases in the country, with 177 deaths and 84 recoveries. Celerina Monte/DMS
