Over 1.7 million COVID-19 tests done in PHL so far
(Eagle News) – With more than 30,000 tests done daily, the Philippines is now the country in Southeast Asia with the most number of COVID-19 tests done per day compared to its Southeast Asian neighbors, according to the country’s COVID-19 testing czar Vince Dizon.
Dizon, who is also president of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) cited recent figures from Our World in Data, an England-based data and research platform.
“Our World in Data’s graph shows that the country has increased its number of people tested on a seven-day average to more than 30,000, topping Indonesia’s 12,777 tests, Malaysia’s 6,494 tests, Singapore’s 5,551 tests, Thailand’s 1,926 tests and Myanmar’s 1,126 tests as of end-July. Vietnam recorded a high of 10,906 tests,” a BCDA statement said.
“One of the major challenges we’ve had in the past months was testing. But now, we are able to aggressively conduct more tests with the 100 laboratories already accredited from only 1 lab in February,” says National Action Plan Against COVID-19 Deputy Chief Implementer Dizon.
The increase in daily testing capacity and actual tests done came about as more than 100 COVID-19 laboratories had been certified by the Department of Health.
So far, recent data from the Department of Health showed that the Philippines has conducted a total of 1.703 million tests since the start of the pandemic early this year.
Dizon said that ramping of COVID-19 tests is essential to prevent further case transmission.
“The government is heightening its response to lessen the transmission of the coronavirus that’s why we’re continuously ramping up our testing, along with the other equally important measures such as aggressive contact tracing and isolation, as well as effective
treatment of COVID-19 patients,” he added.
The DOH recently launched the “One Hospital Command Center” at the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Operations Center in Makati to help decongest hospitals filled with COVID-19 cases.
The command center will facilitate medical transport and patient pick-up arrangements, provide health system capacity data analytics and risk communications, and optimize the use of critical care services of every hospital in Metro Manila.
Mild and asymptomatic cases will be transferred to isolation and treatment centers, so that only severe and critical COVID-19 cases will remain in hospitals.
(Eagle News Service)
