Philippines must average 140,000 COVID-19 tests per day –OCTA

The Philippines must be conducting an average of 140,000 COVID-19 tests daily as there could be more undetected cases, OCTA Research said on Tuesday.

In an interview over GTV's Balitanghali, OCTA Research Fellow Dr. Guido David said raising the number of COVID-19 tests will help defeat the surge.

"Ang mahalaga diyan sana madagdagan ang testing natin. Sa ngayon kasi we are averaging 70,000 tests per day, dapat madoble natin ito to 140,000 tests per day... Kahit hindi RT-PCR puwedeng antigen test," said David.

(It is important that we add more testing capacity. For now, we are averaging 70,000 tests per day and we need to double that number. We can use antigen tests not only RT-PCR.)

David further warned that around 30% of cases in the country have not yet been detected.

On Monday, the Philippines registered an all-time high of 22,366 new COVID-19 cases. This pushed the total case count to 1,976,202.

Based on Department of Health data, the Philippines registered a positivity rate of 27.5% with 65,237 total tests.

Vice President Leni Robredo had again called for increased testing capacity in the country, warning that some could be unaware that they are spreading the virus in their communities. — Consuelo Marquez/DVM, GMA News