MANILA, Philippines — High-capacity laboratories will handle the COVID-19 testing of returning Filipino migrant workers while the government is ironing out the issue with the Philippine Red Cross (PRC), which halted coronavirus tests that are being charged to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).
This was the response of National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF) Chief Implementor Carlito Galvez Jr. on Thursday on PRC’s decision to stop testing specimens of returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), those arriving in airports and seaports, those in mega swabbing facilities, and frontline health and government workers.
PRC said these services cannot resume until PhilHealth pays its overdue balance of P930.99 million.
READ: PRC most likely to suspend COVID-19 testing due to PhilHealth’s debt
“Ngayon ang strategy po natin, meron tayong mga high-capacity laboratories like (Jose B.) Lingad. Just in case magkaroon ng pagtigil ng testing ang Red Cross, sa kanila po muna sa Lung Center, sa JB Lingad, at RITM muna natin ibibgay ‘yung ating mga testing samples sa OFWs,” Galvez said in a televised Palace press briefing.
(Now our strategy is to use our high-capacity laboratories like Jose B. Lingad. Just in case the Red Cross stops its services, we will give the swab samples of OFWs to the Lung Center, JB Lingad, and RITM.)
He added that NTF chair Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, PhilHealth chief Dante Gierran, and PRC chairman and Senator Richard Gordon are already discussing the issue.
“I am confident that the issue will be resolved immediately,” Galvez said.
The humanitarian organization has played a key role in COVID-19 screening in the country. It has conducted over one million coronavirus tests, accounting for over 25% of the total SARS-CoV-2 tests done nationwide.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said PRC’s stoppage will deal a huge blow in the country’s COVID-19 testing capacity.
“Malaking kawalan po ‘yan kung titigil nila ang testing for PhilHealth pero ako naman po kampante na meron lang talagang internal na problema ang PhilHealth na alam naman nating lahat,” Roque said.
(That will be a big loss for us if they stop testing for PhilHealth but I am complacent that PhilHealth really has some internal problems that we all know about.)
“Bagamat one fourth ang testing conducted by PRC at marami na po tayong licensed RT-PCR at mga GeneXpert laboratories, siyempre po kailangan pa rin natin ang PRC para ating mameet ang ating target na 10 million tests,’ he added.
(Although one-fourth of our total tests were conducted by the PRC and we already have many licensed RT-PCR and GeneXpert laboratories, of course, we still need the PRC to meet our target of 10 million tests.)
He also echoed the NTF chair’s pronouncement that other private and public laboratories can handle the COVID-19 tests in airports and seaports while the issue is being ironed out.
“Ang PhilHealth kasi pays both private, public, and PRC. Kung mawawala po ‘yung serbisyo ng PRC sa ating ariport sa ating pantalan, pupwede naman pong palitan for the time being ng mga pribado or other public testing centers,” the Palace official said.
(PhilHealth pays both private, public, and PRC. If the PRC stops is services in the airports and seaports, it can be replaced for the time being by private or other public testing centers.)
“But I do hope that the problem will be resolved because our goal is to have more people tested,” he added.