DOH targets to test 1.5% of Filipino population by end of July

The Department of Health (DOH) hopes that 1.5% of the 110 million Filipino population would be covered by the COVID-19 test by the end of July, according to Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Monday.

During a Malacanang briefing, Vergeire explained the Philippines has a rated testing capacity of almost 50,000 daily as 59 COVID-19 testing laboratories are already operational.

"Nakukuha po natin ang rated capacity kapag tiningnan natin ang isang lisensyadong laboratoryo, base sa kanilang RT-PCR machines kung ilan 'yan, base sa kung ang health human resources ay kumpleto, base rin po sa operating hours ng isang laboratory and then we compute for their maximum capacity na pwedeng magawa base sa reosurces ," she said.

She, however, noted that the actual daily testing capacity differs because of some "operational issues" in the laboratories.

"Ang atin pong average ay pumapalo na po sa 10,500 to 11,000 a day for output. Hopefully po magtuloy-tuloy para pagdating ng end of July we can reach that we have tested 1.5% of the population," Vergeire said.

The target 1.5% of the population is equivalent to 1.65 million individuals. As of June 13, the number of cumulative unique individuals tested by the DOH is 468,681.

Vergeire said that to narrow the gap between the actual and rated testing capacity, the DOH is employing different measures.

She said that additional subsectors—composed of other frontliners such as barangay health emergency response teams and social workers, and other vulnerable population—were included in the expanded testing guidelines of the DOH.

"Expectedly, there will be an increase in the samples that will be submitted to our laboratories," she added.

The accreditation of more COVID-19 laboratories is also ongoing, according to Vergeire.

The stabilization of supplies for testing is another component of the strategy to continuously strengthen the capacity, she added.

'Backlogs'

Meanwhile, Vergeire said the laboratories in the country currently have around 2,200 backlog cases.

"As of yesterday, we have a total of about 2,200 backlogs in our laboratories. Napababa na po natin 'yan into just 500 kaya lang with this operational issues that we encounter daily, talagang hindi po maiwasan na mayroon po talagang nagkakaroon ng bottleneck," she said.

"Meron na ho tayong strategies na ine-employ for these things para pa magkaroon tayo ng stable na outputs per day. Hopefully we can reach this goal of having 1.5% of the population tested by the end of July," she added.

As to the backlogs in reporting of COVID-19 cases, the DOH is optimistic that "late cases" will be eliminated soon.

"Kakaunti na po itong nililinis natin kasi nakapag-submit na po ng line list ang ating mga laboratoryo. Isa na lang ang kailangan mag-complete pa para po ma-eliminate na talaga 'yung merong late na kaso at makita na natin ang kabuuan ng fresh cases natin," she said.

As of June 14, there were 25,930 COVID-19 cases reported in the Philippines with 5,954 recoveries and 1,088 deaths.—AOL, GMA News