DOH, experts explain backlog in COVID-19 testing

As coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections in the Philippines continue to rise, Filipinos were clamoring for mass testing and real-time data on the confirmed cases in the country.

As of last week, however, there was still a backlog of 7,000 tests that had yet to be processed by licensed laboratories.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said there were several factors affecting the processing of test results.

“Hindi gano’n kadaling sabihin na dapat ay i-angat natin ang ating testing capacity na tila ito ay pregnancy test lamang… Kumplikado ang proseso ng pagte-test,” she said in a virtual press briefing on Monday.

Testing process

Dr. Marife Yap, an executive of the health systems development organization ThinkWell, explained that it could take up to eight hours to test a swab sample for COVID-19.

She said that the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methodology was often a manual process that must be done with extreme caution by laboratory personnel.

It involved four hours of extracting the virus and two hours of processing by the PCR machine.

“Medyo masalimuot ang proseso ng testing para sa COVID-19… Sa suma total po, mga walong oras po talaga ito,” Yap said. “Hindi po talaga mapapabilis ito sa kadahilanang may karampatang ingat po talaga na dapat gawin.”

Vergeire added that the eight-hour processing time “does not factor in the number of our samples in our laboratories that they are receiving daily, the number of people tested, the number of required machines, and many other factors.”

Backlog causes

Yap explained that some laboratories were not able to meet the 6 p.m. cut off time in submitting reports to the Department of Health (DOH), which was one of the factors that caused the backlog.

She added that PCR machines had a maximum capacity that limits the number of samples that could be processed each day.

“‘Yung PCR, meron lang po ‘yang mga 96 na butas pero 44 lang po ang puwedeng gamitin do’n, sa kadahilanan na meron pa pong kailangang ilagay na ibang mga sample na pang-verify doon sa tine-test at iba pang mga teknikal na bahagi.”

Laboratories also struggled with a lack of personnel that would conduct the tests, according to Yap.

Another factor causing the backlog was the surge of samples being sent in by various groups, including local government units (LGU).

“Marami po sa ating mga LGU ay nagsipag-swab na po, so ang dami nang samples. ‘Yung ating mga labs, medyo nao-overwhelm na sila sa dami ng samples kaya hindi rin sila nakakatapos,” Yap said.

Vergeire acknowledged that releasing data in real-time was a “challenging task given our limited resources” but she assured the public that the DOH was working every day to provide accurate data for policymakers.

“Marami po sa ating mga laboratoryo, humahanap kaagad ng paraan para matugunan ito… minsan ibinibigay nila sa ibang lab para lang matapos na ‘yun, nagdadagdag sila ng tao, nagdadagdag sila ng oras,” Yap added.

Current testing capacity

Data from the DOH showed that 207,823 people had been tested for COVID-19 as of May 15.

Of this number, 82.4 percent were negative for the respiratory disease while 8.1 percent tested positive.

The DOH recorded 12,718 confirmed cases with 2,729 recoveries and 831 deaths as of Monday afternoon.

Meanwhile, the 30 licensed PCR laboratories nationwide had conducted 244,800 tests as of Sunday.

Aside from the testing centers that had already been certified by the DOH, 109 other facilities were undergoing the laboratory accreditation process.

The government earlier said its goal was to conduct 15,000 tests daily by May 15 and 30,000 by May 30.

The Philippines only achieved its April 30 goal of 8,000 tests per day on May 10, while daily tests conducted only breached the 11,000 mark on May 14, Thursday.

This figure fell to 9,575 on Sunday and 8,870 on Saturday, according to the DOH. — DVM, GMA News