Gov't eyes increasing COVID-19 tests to 90k a day using antigen kits —Dizon

The government is planning to ramp up COVID-19 tests to 80,000 to 90,000 per day in Metro Manila and nearby provinces, testing czar Vince Dizon said Tuesday.

“The experts and the national task force recommended that we ramp up our tests in the NCR and other provinces to upwards of 80 to 90,000,” Dizon said in an interview on CNN Philippines.

To achieve this, Dizon said that the government will be using antigen test kits certified by the World Health Organization and the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) along with the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test.

Dizon explained that the use of antigen test kits will help the government to quickly identify those infected with the virus as it can yield results in just a few minutes.

“Right now with PCR, we are limited to 24 to 48 hours, but if we ramp up using targeted antigen tests in areas like hospitals, like very dense communities around Metro Manila and the surrounding provinces, we will be able to detect more cases faster in just a matter of minutes. That is the most important thing right now,” he said.

Currently, there are around 51,000 RT-PCR tests being conducted every day, according to Dizon during a Palace briefing Tuesday.

The government will add 30,000 antigen kits along with the RT-PCR tests to achieve the 90,000 tests per day in the Philippines.

Last week, Malacañang announced that the government will order 500,000 antigen kits to ramp up the COVID-19 testing in the country.

Dizon said these 500,000 test kits are still being procured by the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) and the testing will start immediately once the first batch arrives.

The OCD is only allowed to procure the antigen kit brands Abbott’s Panbio COVID-19 Ag rapid test kit, SD Biosensor test kit, and Lansion test kit.

Local government units’ help will also be sought by the national government in using the antigen test kits to ensure that the testing will target the very dense communities and the hospitals.

Meanwhile, Dizon welcomed the Swab Cab launched by the Office of Vice President Leni Robredo and the Malabon City government. 

“This is absolutely very, very welcome and we welcome the help from everyone, especially from the Vice President and we want to thank the Vice President for her efforts,” Dizon said.

He added that the government is also eyeing a similar mode of testing in coordination with the LGUs.

According to the Department of Health’s COVID-19 tracker, there are over 10 million cumulative samples tested as of March 28.

Over 9.4 million individuals were tested with 8.5% cumulative positivity rate.

So far, 207 testing labs are operating all over the country. —KG, GMA News