MANILA, Philippines — Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Thursday said the government should “move heaven and earth” to reach a testing capacity of 21,000 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) tests per day.
Gatchalian issued the challenge in response to the admission of the Department of Health (DOH) that it may not reach its target of 8,000 daily COVID-19 tests by the end of April.
“This is not good. Especially that May 15 is fast approaching. How do we track those who are infected without testing?” the senator said in a tweet.
This is not good. Especially that May 15 is fast approaching. How do we track those who are infected without testing? Government should move heaven and earth to get our testing capacity to 21k/day. https://t.co/8a1AafLeM6
— Sherwin Gatchalian (@stgatchalian) April 30, 2020
“Government should move heaven and earth to get our testing capacity to 21k/day,” he added.
The DOH has ramped up its COVID-19 testing with the government targeting to conduct 8,000 tests per day by April 30.
DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, however, said the country can currently only conduct “less than 5,000” COVID-19 tests daily.
Vergeire nevertheless assured that the target will likely be met in the coming days once more testing kits become available.
At present, the daily testing capacity of the 18 DOH-accredited COVID-19 testing laboratories nationwide ranges from only 2,895 to 6,420 tests a day.
The DOH has so far conducted over 89,000 coronavirus tests, 88 percent of which have yielded negative results.
The Philippines has 8,212 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Wednesday afternoon.
One thousand twenty three patients have recovered while 558 have died.
The entire Luzon is currently under an enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) until April 30 in a bid to contain the spread of the virus.
President Rodrigo Duterte extended the ECQ in Metro Manila and other “high-risk” areas until May 15 while a general community quarantine will be in effect in low-risk provinces beginning May 1.