TO INCREASE TESTING CAPACITY Swab booths are due to be delivered to hospitals in Manila. The city government has teamed up with the private sector in an effort to contain the spread of the new coronavirus in the country’s capital. —MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
MANILA, Philippines — Although it has yet to reach its initial target daily testing capacity of 8,000, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Monday that it is working to expand by the end of the month to up to six times the current number of new coronavirus tests it can process every day.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the goal was 30,000 tests by May 31, as she stressed that early detection was critical to the government’s efforts to contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus that causes the severe respiratory disease COVID-19.
“We cannot defeat this pandemic and proceed to the new normal if we do not find and isolate cases early. Hence, we need to test our vulnerable population, such as our front-line health-care workers, high-risk individuals and those who had close contact with the confirmed cases,” Vergeire said in an online press briefing.
Way below target
As of May 3, however, the DOH’s accredited laboratories conducted a combined 5,264 tests. While this was higher than the 4,501 tests done the day before, the figure was way below the DOH’s target of 8,000 tests by April 30.
Vergeire earlier explained that the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine’s decision to scale down its operation for a week affected the DOH daily testing output. The country’s main reference laboratory had to slow down after 45 of its staff members tested positive for the virus.
While she did not say when 8,000 tests daily could be reached, Vergeire said the DOH was doing all it could to shorten the turnaround time and hasten the processing of results.
For the DOH to reach its new target, Vergeire said it was working with the Department of Transportation and the Bases Conversion and Development Authority for the construction of four “megaswabbing” centers, which were expected to open within the week. These are at the Philippine Arena in Bulacan, Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay, Enderun Tent in Taguig and Palacio de Manila Tent in Manila.
On top of this, she said the DOH had also hired additional encoders to speed up the release of results.
On Monday, the department reported 262 new coronavirus infections, pushing the nationwide total to 9,485. The majority of the new cases were reported in Metro Manila (122) and Central Visayas (88).
The DOH also saw the biggest single-day increase in recoveries to date with 101 patients, bringing the current tally to 1,315.
The death toll, however, increased to 623 as 16 patients succumbed to the disease.
Health-care workers
Vergeire said that while health-care workers still accounted for one out of every five infections, a slowing in the number of medical front-liners testing positive for the virus has been seen in recent days. To date, 1,772 health-care workers have contracted the virus, of whom 319 have already recovered.
Thirty-four medical workers have died of COVID-19.
Of the 1,419 active cases among health-care workers, 958 are mild, 452 are asymptomatic and nine are severe.
Vergeire said the DOH was working closely with the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) and the Philippine Red Cross to test, isolate and treat early prisoners, as well as prison staff, to prevent an outbreak in jails.
To date, 38 BJMP staff have tested positive for the virus, she said. Of the 373 prisoners who had been tested, 195 were confirmed to have contracted the virus.
In Malacañang, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said it was too early to decide whether the extension of the lockdown in Metro Manila to May 15 would be the last as the intensive-care space in the metropolis was “almost exhausted.”
The lockdown was originally set to end on April 15, but President Duterte extended it by two weeks. On April 27, he eased the lockdown in several parts of the country but extended it in Metro Manila, the epicenter of the local coronavirus epidemic.
“We’re just on our fourth day of the two-week extension. We are carefully studying the data—on science and the economy,” Roque said at a press briefing.
Albay, Zamboanga City
Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea said Mr. Duterte had approved the recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases to place Albay province and Zamboanga City on lockdown until May 15.
The lockdown would take effect at midnight on Monday and end at midnight on May 15, Medialdea said.
—WITH A REPORT FROM JULIE M. AURELIO