MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is getting more supplies of COVID-19 test kits this week, which would help the Department of Health detect more cases of the new coronavirus.
Health chief Francisco Duque III said on Monday that the Philippines is expecting the delivery of 5,000 to 10,000 rapid test kits from South Korea and 10,000 test kits from China in the coming days.
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Earlier, the Philippines received 500 test kits from South Korea and 2,000 from China.
“So unti-unti nagkakaroon na tayo ng maraming kakayahan for rapid diagnostic tests,” Duque said.
(Little by little, our ability to conduct rapid diagnostic tests is growing)
The only COVID-19 diagnostic test kits being used in the country now are polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based lab kits at the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine donated by the World Health Organization.
The test kit developed by the University of the Philippines National Institute of Health approved by the country’s Food and Drugs Administration were scheduled for field testing on Monday.
The virus that causes coronavirus disease is spreading locally after a month of not detecting any case but the testing has so far revealed 142 cases since late January.
There are concerns that the figure may be bigger due to the country’s very limited testing program.
Last week, Duque told Philstar.com that only “about 200 to 250 people” are getting tested a day at the RITM.
The Duterte administration’s economic team announced Monday a P27.1-billion spending plan to arrest the spread of the new coronavirus, which include the acquisition of testing kits.
In all, 12 people have died from COVID-19 in the country and three patients have fully recovered. — Gaea Katreena Cabico