Dizon rejects renewed calls for mass testing, says gov't cannot test entire population

National Task Force Against COVID-19 deputy chief implementer and testing czar Vince Dizon on Tuesday rejected the renewed calls for mass testing, arguing that the government cannot test the entire Filipino population.

In a Palace briefing, Dizon insisted that the government should follow medical journals and statements from health experts to use risk-based and targeted testing strategy than testing the entire 110 million Filipinos.

The Department of Health defines “mass testing” as testing all those who have been exposed to a confirmed positive case, not necessarily the entire population.

“Ang mass testing po ay hindi nirerekomenda [mass testing is not recommended],” Dizon said.

“‘Di pwedeng gamiting testing lang para ma-solusyunan ang COVID-19 [Testing is not the only solution to the pandemic]. We cannot test our way out of this pandemic,” he added.

Similar to DOH’s “mass testing” definition, Dizon said risk-based and targeted testing means testing of persons as recommended by a doctor, persons with symptoms, persons with close contact with a COVID-19 patient, or persons coming from areas with high cases of COVID-19.

Dizon added experts have advised maintaining minimum health standards, use of face masks, frequent hand-washing, and social distancing.

Last week, Senator Risa Hontiveros called on the task force to establish an official mass testing system as part of its COVID-19 response.

She noted that the ramping up of COVID-19 tests to 90,000 per day -- as announced by the government -- came a little too late.

"We need an official and national mass testing system to hit our targets and to hit them smartly. We need to increase the magnitude of testing and sustain the quality so that we do not post artificial improvement," Hontiveros said.

Dizon announced last week that the government is planning to ramp up COVID-19 tests to 80,000 to 90,000 per day in Metro Manila and nearby provinces — areas that are experiencing a surge in infections.

To achieve this, he said the government will be using antigen test kits certified by the World Health Organization and the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine along with the RT-PCR test.

In the same Palace briefing, Dizon said the 10,000 average tests in the National Capital Region before the latest surge occurred in the Philippines was already “doubled.”

On Tuesday, the OCTA Research Group projected that the Philippines will have more than 1 million COVID-19 cases before the end of April as the surge continues in the country.

The Philippines on Monday registered 8,355 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total tally to 803,398. The new cases brought the number of active cases in the country to 143,726. —KBK, GMA News