Pasig City to conduct 270 COVID-19 tests per week

Pasig City would be able to conduct 270 COVID-19 tests per week now that the Department of Health had granted a Level 5 accreditation to The Medical City, Mayor Vico Sotto said Tuesday.

“We know that broad-based testing is key to slowing down COVID-19. With our agreement with The Medical City after it was granted Stage 5 accreditation, we have increased our capacity to up to 270 tests per week,” Sotto said.

“Previously, we've only been able to test 30 to 60 per week [under the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine],” Sotto added.

Sotto earlier said that suspected and probable COVID-19 cases, as well as health workers, should be prioritized in the mass COVID-19 testing.

Areas that had started mass testing included Valenzuela, Manila, the province of Cavite, among others.

Luzon has been under an enhanced community quarantine since March 16 to prevent COVID-19 transmissions.

It was supposed to end on April 12, but it was extended to April 30 to give the government more time to establish facilities to exclusively treat confirmed and suspected COVID-19 cases as well as more testing laboratories.

The government was expected to conduct as many as 10,000 COVID-19 tests per day by April 27 or three days before the expected end of the enhanced community quarantine.

The Philippines has recorded 4,932 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of 4 p.m. of April 13. Of this number, 315 have died while 242 others recovered. — DVM, GMA News