Gov’t sets back deadline for 30K daily COVID-19 tests to end of June

MANILA, Philippines — After missing its May 30 deadline, the government on Monday said it is now recalibrating its target deadline of achieving its maximum testing capacity of 30,000 tests a day by the end of June.

“We are moving forward na before the end of the month ay talagang ma-achieve na po natin iyong capacity natin na mayroon na po tayong capacity na more or less 30,000 po na tests a day,” National Task Force on COVID-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez, Jr. said in a televised Palace briefing.

“Sa ngayon po nagkakaroon po tayo ng mga konting problema sa supply chain at sino-solve na po natin po iyon,” he added.

The government failed to reach its target of conducting at least 30,000 actual tests per day by the end of May. It initially aimed to conduct 8,000 tests daily by the end of April — a target it only reached 10 days later.

Although presidential spokesperson Harry Roque had claimed that the country has already reached its goal of potentially conducting 32,000 coronavirus tests daily, the Department of Health (DOH) clarified that the country is operating below capacity due to some operational issues face by accredited laboratories.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire earlier said that due to some external factors such as the availability of laboratory supplies, health human resources, infrastructure, and equipment issues, the actual tests being done daily by all the COVID-19 testing centers is still around 8,500 to 9,500 a day.

To date, there are 48 licensed laboratories nationwide capable of detecting SARS-CoV-2—the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Of which, 37 conducts RT-PCR testing while 11 are accredited to use GeneXpert rapid test kits.

The government’s “expanded targeted testing” aims to test 1.5 to 2 percent of the country’s total population or about 1.6 to 2.2 million Filipinos.

The DOH also reported earlier that it has observed a “downward trend” on the number of COVID-19 tests done in recent days. But it assured that it is already addressing the issue to increase the actual tests done daily.

EDV