Expected arrival of 120,500 new test kits to boost PH’s COVID-19 testing

MANILA, Philippines — The government is expecting an additional 120,500 test kits coming in from donations, which will be used to boost the country’s testing capacity for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the Department of Health (DOH) announced Saturday.

In a statement, the DOH said that the additional test kits will come from different countries such as China, South Korea and Brunei.

This was in addition to the current 1,300 available kits and 2,050 recently delivered kits from China and South Korea, the DOH added.

Aside from this, the DOH also added that five subnational laboratories are now operational aside from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa City.

The subnational laboratories, namely San Lazaro Hospital, and Baguio General Hospital & Medical Center for Luzon, Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center for Visayas, and Southern Philippines Medical Center for Mindanao,  are able to process 50-300 tests daily.

The Western Visayas Medical Center and Bicol Public Health Laboratory, meanwhile, are being set up as additional laboratories and will undergo “proficiency testing” for one week before it can begin testing.

The DOH added that University of the Philippines-National Institutes of Health has also been mobilized as an extension lab and is currently testing overflow samples from the RITM.

As of Saturday, the DOH has recorded 262 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country, of which 19 have died while 13 have recovered.

The DOH added that it will be assisted by the World Health Organization and the RITM to assess five more molecular biology laboratories in private tertiary hospitals —  St. Lukes Medical Center-Global City, Makati Medical Center, The Medical City, St. Lukes Medical Center-Quezon City, and Chinese General Hospital — as possible extension labs starting March 21.

“We must underscore the importance of laboratory certification due to the hazards of handling a live virus. The Department is exercising utmost care in certifying more sub-national laboratories and ensuring that biosafety measures are in place,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said.

The Food and Drug Administration has also approved six testing kits for commercial use that hospitals with laboratory capability, which can be already procured and used, the DOH said.

“Once increased testing capacity is in place, testing of mild cases and patients under investigation (PUIs) can resume,” the DOH said. “However, mass testing for non-symptomatic is still not recommended. DOH is, however, optimistic that with its expanded testing capacity, it can now test more people faster.”

Edited by JPV