MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines will receive rapid test kits donated by South Korea and China to fast track the confirmation of coronavirus disease cases, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Saturday.
In a press conference, Duque admitted that there is a shortage of laboratory-based polymerase chain reaction testing kits in the country, which is being used by the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine.
With this, the Health chief said around 500 test kits already arrived in the country to test for the coronavirus disease.
“Merong mga dumating na galing sa South Korea na donation about 500 dumating kahapon. May darating na 1,000 (from South Korea). Nagpahayag na ang China magpapadala na about 2,000,” Duque said after a meeting at the Metro Manila Council at Metropolitan Manila Development Authority.
(We already have test kits from South Korea, 500 arrived yesterday. There are 1,000 more that will arrive from South Korea. China also gave its signal to give 2,000 test kits.)
“Mabilis na yung test mula po sa South Korea, may isang nagmagandang loob na siya gumitna na pumasok ang rapid diagnostic test,” he added but did not disclose the specific features of the test kits.
(The test kits from South Korea will show quicker results, someone helped in mediating the entry of the rapid diagnostic tests.)
Duque clarified that the test kits for COVID-19 are not home kits like pregnancy tests. The test kits needed for confirming COVID-19 cases have sophisticated laboratory procedures.
Locally-made test kits developed by the University of the Philippines’ National Institute of Health were also rolled out for field testing after being approved by the Food and Drug Administration.