DOH: Gov’t to bring down price cap for COVID-19 tests

The government is set to bring down the price cap for COVID-19 tests, the Department of Health (DOH) said Tuesday.

Asked about calls for free COVID-19 testing amid a spike in infections, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the government is open to such recommendations.

Vergeire said the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases discussed the price cap for COVID-19 tests in its latest meeting.

“I just can’t announce it yet kung magkano and all. It’s going to be IATF and the concerned agencies, DTI and DOH, to release the policy, pero naibaba nila ‘yung price cap nitong mga test na ito,” she said in a briefing.

(I just can’t announce the price yet. It’s going to be IATF and the concerned agencies, DTI and DOH, to release the policy, but they brought down the price cap for these tests.)

Under the price cap set in 2020, RT-PCR COVID-19 tests must only be priced at P3,800 to P5,000. 

Vergeire also noted that there are certain local government units, which she did not specify, offering free COVID-19 tests.

“Nagbibigay po tayo ng mga libreng testing kits sa ating local governments so that they can appropriately do their active case finding at makapagbigay po sila ng libreng serbisyo para sa ating mga kababayan,” she said.

(We gave free test kits to our local governments so that they can appropriately do their active case finding and give free service to our countrymen.)

The health official also said the suggested retail price for antigen test kits had been set at P960 to avoid “excessive” pricing.

“Aside from that, meron pa po tayong polisiya dahil nagbibigay tayo ng mga libreng testing kits sa mga laboratoryo na kapag sila ay nagpa-test sa isang laboratory, dapat operational cost lang ang binabayaran nila dahil donated po namin ang mga kits na ‘yan,” Vergeire added.

(Aside from that, we have a policy where, because we give free test kits to laboratories, they should only charge for the operational cost since the kits were donated by the DOH.)

Meanwhile, Vergeire said the government continues to ramp up COVID-19 testing in a bid to decrease the positivity rate from the current 27.5% to just 5%, the benchmark set by the World Health Organization.

The Philippines logged a record-high 22,366 new cases on Monday afternoon, pushing the caseload to over 1.97 million with 1.79 million recoveries and 33,330 deaths.  — RSJ, GMA News