Philippines eyes testing 1.5-2% of population for COVID-19

The Philippines is eyeing to cover 1.5-2% of the population for its expanded testing for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Malacañang said Tuesday.

In an interview on CNN Philippines, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque maintained that no country in the world will test every citizen amid calls for the government to conduct mass testing to determine the magnitude of the outbreak.

He also said it will be physically impossible to test all 110 million Filipinos.

“What we are doing is we’re trying to follow the best examples that we have and right now we’re trying to follow the footsteps of South Korea; and that is why the goal is to test 1.5 to 2% of the total population,” Roque said.

In the case of the outbreak’s epicenter such as Metro Manila, the testing should cover  up to 10% of the population, the Palace official said in his regular press briefing on Tuesday.

Roque said on Monday that the Philippines will not carry out mass testing similar to the plan of Wuhan City — the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in China — to test all its 11 million residents after new infections emerged recently.

However, Roque clarified in his regular press briefing on Tuesday that the government’s expanded testing initiative will be aided by the private sector. 

He said only the following individuals will be subject to COVID-19 testing:

• all symptomatic
• all those coming from abroad
• all close contacts
• those who tested positive in rapid antibody test results

“Wala pong perpektong formula. Kailangan lang natin sundin ang global benchmark and build capacity to test broadly and swiftly,” Roque said.

“Mali iyong ginagamit nating term na ‘mass testing.’ Ang tawag po dapat ay ‘expanded targeted testing.’ Wala pong bansa sa buong mundo na tini-test ang lahat ng kanilang mga mamamayan.”

Roque said the Department of Health’s guidelines on expanded testing were based on “international practice.”

“We test those who need to be tested, hindi lang iyong mga gustong magpa-test,” he said.

Government data showed that as of May 13, the country had conducted a total of 189,469 tests on 184,857 individuals. From May 8 to 13, the average of conducted tests was 7,809 tests per day.

The government aims to conduct at least 30,000 tests a day by the end of the month.

As of Monday, the Philippines had 12,718 COVID-19 cases, with 831 deaths and 2,729 recoveries based on the Monday data of the DOH. --KBK, GMA News