Gov’t ‘misinterpreted’ calls for mass testing —Robredo

Vice President Leni Robredo on Sunday said the government may have "misinterpreted" requests for mass testing, after testing czar Vince Dizon said the government cannot test its entire population.

In her radio program on Sunday, Robredo said the goal is to increase testing to reach a positivity rate of less than 5%, which is the standard of the World Health Organization (WHO).

"Ito, Ka Ely, iyong ating nire-request, pero nami-misinterpret yata. Hindi ko alam kung nami-misinterpret o may ibang dahilan, pero ito iyong gusto nating sabihin, kasi may standard naman tayong hinahabol, Ka Ely, eh," Robredo said.

(They misinterpreted it. I don't know if they misinterpret it or if they have other reasons but I just want to clarify that we have standards.)

"Ang WHO standard, dapat less than 5% iyong positivity rate. So ang layo natin sa standard, kasi nasa may 20% tayo eh. Paano natin mapapababa iyon? Mapapababa natin iyon kapag nag-test tayo nang mas marami," the vice president added.

(According to WHO, we need less than 5% positivity rate. We are far from it, we are at 20%. So how do we reach that? We need to test more.)

But Robredo explained that mass testing means testing a targeted population where there is high risk of transmission. She added that if the government will test the whole population, contact tracing and isolation would be difficult.

"Hindi naman. Saka tingin ko, Ka Ely, wala naman yatang bansa na tinest iyong buong populasyon. Hindi ko alam kung mayroon. Pero kapag sinasabi kasi natin, Ka Ely, iyong mass testing, ang gusto nating sabihin mas targeted, na iyong mga lugar na matataas iyong transmission, doon mag-test nang mas marami," the country's second highest official said.

(I think there is no country in the world that tested their whole population. I don't think there are any. But when we say mass testing, we mean targeted testing people living in areas with highest transmission.)

In a previous television interview, Robredo lamented inaccessibility of RT-PCR tests, gold standard for COVID-19 detection even as the country has been placed under lockdown for more than a year.  — BM, GMA News