MANILA, Philippines — The government will install coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) specimen collection booths nationwide to further beef up its expanded coronavirus testing program.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, spokesman of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, said Friday that at least 132 specimen collection booths will be established in different regions nationwide to complement the 16 accredited COVID-19 testing centers.
In a Facebook post, Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Secretary Fortunato dela Peña said the specimen collection booths will be distributed in the following regions:
-Metro Manila – 34
-Cordillera Administrative Region – 6
-Ilocos Region – 6
-Cagayan Valley – 6
-Central Luzon – 8
-CALABARZON – 4
-MIMAROPA – 2
-Bicol Region – 5
-Western Visayas – 6
-Central Visayas – 7
-Eastern Visayas – 3
-Zamboanga Peninsula – 10
-Northern Mindanao – 5
-Davao Region – 4
-SOCCSKSARGEN– 3
-Caraga Region – 4
-Department of Health Centers for Health Development Offices- 19
The expanded COVID-19 testing started Tuesday, with the government targeting to conduct 8,000 tests per day by the end of the month. The government is also eyeing to purchase 900,000 polymerase chain reaction-based kits and about two million rapid test kits.
On Thursday afternoon, the Department of Health reported 207 new cases of the respiratory disease, bringing the country’s total to 5,660, including 362 deaths and 435 recoveries.