The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved two home self-testing COVID-19 antigen test kits in the country.

During the Talk to The People with President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday night, FDA Officer-in-Charge Oscar Gutierrez Jr. said so far two out of the total of 33 home self-testing COVID-19 antigen test kits were approved.

"They were given special permit certification by the FDA. The Panbio COVID-19 Antigen Self-test of Abbott available for one, four, 10 and 20 test per box and the SARS-COV-2 Antigen Rapid test of Labnovation Technologies Inc. also a self-test for home use available for two, five, 20 test per box," he said.

"There are 31 other home test kits that were also submitted to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), so far only the two were approved, so it is expected to increase. There are 31 others that are still subject to the performance validation of the RITM," he added.

Gutierrez said as of Monday, there are a total of 116 COVID-19 test kits that were certified by the FDA, of which 45 are PCR test kits, 27 are antibody test kits, 42 are health care workers assisted antigen test kits and two home self testing antigen test kits. Robina Asido/DMS