De Lima wants probe on mass testing for COVID-19 in Philippines

The real score on mass testing for COVID-19 in the Philippines must be looked into, according to detained Senator Leila De Lima on Monday as the number of infected in the country continues to rise to over 18,000.

Senate Resolution No. 425, filed on May 27, calls for a Senate inquiry on the status of novel coronavirus testing and the factors that delay its roll-out.

"More than lockdowns and quarantine, it has been proven in many countries that testing is the first step towards controlling the transmission of COVID-19," De Lima said in a statement.

"The lack of effective mass testing has hampered our ability to control the spread of the virus by denying us leads for contact tracing, which, in turn prevents us from isolating and containing the infected individuals,” she added.

"Without mass testing, we do not have any data to support the easing of the quarantine levels.

De Lima pointed out that 56 days into the enhanced community quarantine on May 12, only 137,055 individuals out of the over 100 million Filipino population have been tested.

She also lamented the possibility that some COVID-19 deaths have not been properly accounted for due to lack of testing initiatives.

"According to a report, there exists no national total of how many Filipinos have died of circumstances that resemble COVID-19 but were never confirmed by lab testing. Even the DOH’s COVID-19 Tracker only counts the deaths of confirmed cases," De Lima said.

On the other hand, the Department of Health (DOH) has previously explained that it is engaged in expanded targeted testing.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque announced last Monday that the country has already met its target testing capacity of 30,000 daily.

The DOH, however, clarified that this does not necessarily translate to the actual tests done per day.

"This is just an estimate, based on the number of machines, number of human resources, and the operating hours per laboratory. This also does not include yet the factors that may affect the operations of each laboratory," Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said.

"Our actual numbers are being reported daily through our sitreps and other materials. The 32,000 is the estimated capacity sans all other factors that may affect operations of laboratories," she added.

As of May 30, the Philippines has 37 certified polymerase chain reaction facilities and 11 GeneXpert laboratories that have tested a total of 318,356 individuals.—AOL, GMA News