Philippines conducted more tests than 6 other Asian nations in July — NTF

The Philippines conducted more the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) tests daily for the month of July than six other Asian nations, National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF) deputy implementer and testing czar Vince Dizon said Wednesday.

Citing official figures collated by England-based data and research platform “Our World in Data,” Dizon said the Philippines performed twice as many COVID-19 tests last month than Japan with 15,115 tests.

“In March, we were testing 500 tests per day and now we're up to around 35,000 but we're not stopping there," Dizon was quoted as saying in a press release on the Can The Philippines Dance with COVID-19 Forum.

Other Asian nations like Indonesia conducted 12,777 tests, South Korea did 7,957, Malaysia performed 6,494, and Singapore recorded 6,402 tests based on July 27 data.

"We are now among the countries that test the most in Asia. We are double that of Japan already, in tests per day, and far outpacing the other countries in Asia," Dizon said.

"The Department of Health is constantly pushing to test more especially now that there's a resurgence in cases in the National Capital Region and some areas in CALABARZON,” he added.

The Philippines performed over 30,000 tests daily in the last week of July.

The government previously said its goal was to conduct 30,000 tests daily by the end of May, but this target was later moved to the end of July.

Dizon said the new target is to have a total of two million Filipinos tested by August.

As of August 4, the Philippines had 74 certified polymerase chain reaction facilities and 24 GeneXpert laboratories that had tested a total of 1,527,133 individuals.

"We have to push testing especially in areas with high prevalence of COVID-19," Dizon stressed.

The Philippines has logged 115,980 COVID-19 cases as of Wednesday afternoon, the second-highest across Southeast Asia. -- Julia Mari Ornedo/BAP, GMA News