Robredo seeks targeted COVID-19 testing to decrease positivity rate

Vice President Leni Robredo is calling for an increase in the number of COVID-19 tests in targeted areas to reach 5% nationwide positivity rate, the percentage of those who tested positive for the virus from the total people who got tested.

In a Facebook post on Sunday, Robredo showed that the nation's positivity rate is at 17.29%, citing that the percentage is increasing because the number of testing is insufficient.

"Right now, we’re conducting between 30,000-50,000 tests per day all over the country. But if you look at this table, the positivity rates for some regions are so high that the number of tests we are conducting are no longer enough," she wrote.

"WHO (World Health Organization) standard is positivity rate should be less than 5%. We need to have that as our target. Here are our recommended number of tests per day per region, based on the March 26 numbers. We will do this on a daily basis as the reports come in," she further said.

For Metro Manila alone, Robredo said 90,000 tests are needed daily as the positivity rate for the metropolis is at 20.17%, which means out of 5 tests done, one person tests positive for the virus.

The vice president previously urged authorities to increase COVID-19 tests and make contact tracing 24 hours a day as the country reported a spike in the number of  COVID-19 cases. 

National Capital Region (NCR) Plus bubble areas will be under enhanced community quarantine for one week starting March 29, following the surge of COVID-19 cases in the country.

This also came after the Philippines reported more than 9,000 new COVID-19 cases for two consecutive days. —KG, GMA News