DOH: 'Big' COVID-19 test labs to handle specimens amid issues with Red Cross
MANILA, Philippines — Specimens collected from arriving Filipinos will be rerouted to eight coronavirus testing laboratories, the Department of Health said after the Philippine Red Cross halted conducting COVID-19 tests for the government.
The PRC announced Thursday it would stop conducting tests on returning Filipinos, frontline medical and government workers and individuals asking for COVID-19 tests in government swabbing facilities over the Philippine Health Insurance Corp’s failure to settle its overdue balance of over P930 million.
In a press briefing Friday, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said DOH and PhilHealth are having discussions with PRC to continue the operations of and their collaboration with the private organization.
"The Philhealth president went to the PRC and discussed what are the ways forward so we can resolve this immediately," Vergeire said.
"Hopefully, in the coming days, we can resolve this. What would be the effect? We are rerouting the specimens and those that are usually received by Red Cross will be forwarded to big laboratories in the country," she added.
The laboratories that can take on the testing requirement of returning Filipinos are the following, according to the list released by DOH Thursday:
- Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital (Caloocan)
- Las Piñas General Hospital and Satellite Trauma Center
- Lung Center of the Philippines (Quezon City)
- PNP Crime Laboratory (Quezon City)
- Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (Muntinlupa)
- San Lazaro Hospital (Manila)
- Ospital ng Imus (Cavite)
- Jose B. Lingad Memorial Regional Hospital (San Fernando, Pampanga)
The department said there is also an ongoing coordination with testing czar Vince Dizon and other offices to implement the re-routing of specimens and ongoing matching of the mega-swabbing facilities with identified laboratories.
It also said that the testing needs of returning Filipinos are expected to decline, following the newly-published omnibus guidelines.
Under the new guidelines, returning Filipinos will be screened at points of entry for symptoms. Screening testing shall be required depending on the prevalence of COVID-19 in the countries where they came from.
The PRC has conducted over one million swab tests, representing 26% of the country’s testing output.
PhilHealth: We will pay
The state health insurer will settle its multimillion-peso debt to PRC, its chief assured Friday.
“One thing is for certain, PhilHealth has a debt to the Philippine Red Cross. We recognize the help of PRC to the government, particularly our brothers, victims that are to be tested for COVID-19,” PhilHealth president Dante Gierran told CNN Philippines’ “The Source.”
“One thing is sure also: we will pay for that, regardless of whether the Department of Budget and Management will assume a negative position on the matter. We will really pay for it,” he added.
Gierran, however, said there are some “legal issues” affecting the memorandum of agreement between PhilHealth and PRC that need to be addressed.
The country’s coronavirus caseload reached 348,698, with 6,497 deaths Thursday. More than 4.013 million people have been tested for coronavirus in the Philippines. — Gaea Katreena Cabico
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