Philippines meets target of 30k COVID-19 testing capacity per day, Palace claims

The Philippines has met its goal of COVID-19 testing capacity of 30,000 tests ahead of the May 30 target, Malacañang said Monday, more than double than the figure mentioned just last Friday.

In a televised briefing, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the daily testing capacity had reached 32,100 as of May 20.

Roque also said the country is seeking to have 66 COVID-19 testing laboratories in the country by the end of the month. The government aims to raise its testing capacity to 50,000 tests per day by June.

“Our first step to increasing the number of daily tests conducted is to expand our testing capacity. This means more accredited laboratories and more automated machines so that we are capable of testing up to 30,000 plus per day,” Roque said in a statement.

11,500 per day

Last Friday, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., the chief implementer of the Philippines' COVID-19  response, said the country's testing capacity is at 11,500 per day, way below the government's target of 30,000 tests daily by the end of the month.

Galvez said there are difficulties in supply but that the government is trying to fix its supply chain so it can stockpile supplies for 30 days for 50 testing centers and for 30,000 tests a day.

Also last week, deputy chief implementer Vivencio Dizon told a Senate hearing that more than half or 66% of the 11,000 capacity was contributed by the private sector, namely the Philippine Red Cross accounted for 45%, with other private firms contributing 21%.

Next step

Roque, meanwhile, said the next step after reaching the target is to improve the efficiency of laboratories.

“To achieve this, we need to a) improve our human resources through proficiency training, especially on the use of automated machines, b) improve our supply chain management of critical supplies for our labs, and c) improve our data management to verify and release results faster,” Roque said.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said conducting 32,100 COVID-19 tests per day can only be done if there is no shortage of supplies and equipment in the accredited laboratories.

“The 32,000 [COVID-19 tests per day] is the estimated maximum capacity of all licensed labs in the country based on the number of machines, number of human resources, and the operating hours per laboratory," Vergeire told reporters.

“This [figure] does not include yet the factors that may affect the operations of each laboratory.” 

More than 272,000 individuals have been tested for COVID-19 as of May 23,  according to the Department of Health's online tracker.

The government plans to test up to 2% of the country’s population to determine the extent of the COVID-19 outbreak in the Philippines.

As of Sunday, the Philippines had 14,035 COVID-19 cases with 868 deaths and 3,249 recoveries. —KBK, GMA News