MANILA – The Philippines has surpassed its coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) testing capacity goal of 50,000 tests by the end of June, deputy chief implementer of the national policy against COVID-19 Vince Dizon said.
Dizon said during Thursday the country’s testing capacity reached 51,302 as of June 19, higher than the daily testing capacity in May of 34,000 and 3,100 of April.
Dizon added that the number of actual daily tests by laboratories is at 16,000 per day, double last month’s figure of 8,000. The turnaround time for the test results is now down to 48 to 72 hours in June from more than two weeks in March.
He also said there are now 66 COVID-19 laboratories in the country – 24 of these are private and 41 are government laboratories while one is a public-private partnership. 612,571 tests have been conducted, as of June 22.
“Habang tayo ay nagraramp up ng testing, talagang dadami ‘yung numero na nahahanap natin, pero ang importante nating maintindihan ay ‘yung porsyento nung mga positibo dun sa numero ng tinetest natin,” Dizon said.
Dizon announced the 50,000-target testing capacity last month was part of the goal for the Philippines to be able to test up to 2 percent of the population or two million people.
The increased testing capacity, he said, has also prompted them to recommend to the DOH the expansion of the testing protocol to include persons not displaying symptoms as well as non-medical frontliners./PN
