IATF: Gov’t looking into how to make COVID-19 tests free

The Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) on Saturday said the Philippine Government was looking into how to reduce the price of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) tests or how to make them free.

“For those who cannot afford, I think that’s where government should come in and help,” IATF Vice-Chairman Karlo Nograles said in Tina Panganiban-Perez’s report on “24 Oras Weekend.”

Meanwhile, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., the chief implementer of the national action plan against COVID-19, said that testing was the center of the national action plan.

“From only one licensed COVID-19 testing facility in February, we now have 197 across the country and counting. We have also put a price cap on RT-PCR tests. Testing allowed us to save lives,” Galvez said.

Testing czar Vince Dizon also said that the “aggressive and expanded targeted testing” was effective in curbing the spread of the virus.

More than 6 million RT-PCR tests were given as of December 7. Each test cost more than P3,000.

“PhilHealth pays the bulk of the testing fees, no? At P3,409 in the public laboratories that should be more than enough because we need to rate testing kits and other peripherals, no, binibigay natin sa ating mga public laboratories, except sa mga LGUs,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said.

“The testing fee that PhilHealth pays is lower at P2,077 and to a minimum of P901. The testing inputs are arguably subsidized by the national government,” he added. — Joahna Lei Casilao