MANILA, Philippines — The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) has vowed to address the backlogs in the release of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) test results in the coming days, the Department of Health (DOH) said Friday.
According to Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, COVID-19 testing by the RITM now takes five to seven days, far from the standard turnaround time of 24 to 48 hours which was the normal processing time being observed before the coronavirus cases surge in the country.
“Ang kanilang commitment, nakausap natin sila kanina, na matatapos na po lahat ng backlog in two to three days,” Vergeire said in a “public” briefing aired over state-run PTV.
“Pagkatapos po noon, we will have real-time test results already na sinasabi nga nating 24 to 48 hours,” she added.
Meanwhile, Vergeire assured that other subnational laboratories are averaging 24 to 48-hour processing time.
To date, the Philippines has 707 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 45 of whom have died while 28 recovered.
The cases were confirmed in the course of 2,147 tests, according to DOH data.
The health department associated the paltry number of COVID-19 testings to the lack of test kits.