Philippines has conducted almost 1M COVID-19 tests, says exec

Almost one million persons have been tested for COVID-19, a government official said on Monday.

Vince Dizon, the deputy chief implementer of the national action plan on COVID-19, said at least 85 COVID-19 testing labs had been in operation as of Sunday.

“Halos aabot na tayo ng 1 million tests, as of July 11. At siguro sa mga susunod na araw ay lalagpas na tayo sa 1 million test,” the official said.

Dizon said the government sought to reach a million tests by July. He added that the government was targeting 10 million tests in 10 months.

With a target of 30,000 tests daily, Dizon said the government had reached 25,000 tests a day on July 9.

Dizon highlighted that the testing capacity in National Capital Region (NCR) doubled, from 8,416 total tests in June to 16,505 in July.

According to Dizon, the improvements in testing capacity was due to the help of local government units.

“Kailangan po talagang paigtingin pa po natin ang ating pagte-test dahil 'yun lang ang paraan para mahanap natin ang may sakit sa ating komunidad at ma-isolate natin sila para hindi na makahawa at mapabagal natin ang spread ng COVID-19,” Dizon said. -NB, GMA News