MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Risa Hontveros on Tuesday called on the government to fulfill its promise of conducting an average of 90,000 COVID-19 tests daily, warning that virus hotspots are emerging in provinces outside Metro Manila.
Hontiveros noted that the average daily testing for the month of May was at 42,866, less than half the target announced by testing czar Vince Dizon over two months ago on March 30.
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She also flagged the 11.7% positivity rate reported by the Department of Health in its June 1 bulletin, which is more than double 5% — the lower benchmark set by the World Health Organization for a safe economic reopening.
“Are the targets really being reached or are they just dreams? It is embarrassing to the Filipino people," Hontiveros said in a statement written in Filipino.
READ: Cases easing in Metro Manila, rising in 10 regions
GCQ 'with heightened restrictions'
President Rodrigo Duterte late Monday night announced that Metro Manila and four nearby provinces or NCR Plus will remain under General Community Quarantine with heightened restrictions for the entire month of June. The Department of Tourism the following day confirmed that travelers from the so-called NCR Plus bubble are now allowed to vacation in areas under Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ) until mid-June.
"The IATF has searched the alphabet just to come up with different kinds of community quarantine but they were unable to prepare and strengthen support for our local government units when it comes to mass testing," Hontiveros said.
"It is obvious that every day we don’t hit our targets adds considerable burden on our already overwhelmed health care system. It also delays the reopening of the economy."
Over a year into quarantine, mass testing pushed anew
Hontiveros further renewed her call for an “official and national mass testing system," stressing that other countries were able to manage COVID long before they had access to vaccines because they focused on the fundamentals of testing, tracing, and isolating.
"We need a national mass testing system that would prevent us from drifting so far away from our own goals," she said.
"Testing is the first and foremost way to suppress coronavirus transmission. When the testing system is in order, other measures can also be taken, such as trace, isolate, and of course, vaccinate."
Like it has with its testing goals, the government has walked back its tall goals for inoculation, no longer aiming for herd immunity by November but for "population protection." Hontiveros cautioned against this practice, urging the government not to move their targets just "to justify their inadequacy."
Since the government rolled out its vaccination program in March, over 5 million of the country's total 110 million population have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
As of May 26, a total of 1,029,061 people have been fully vaccinated according to the DOH. The figure represents only 0.94% of the country’s total population.
— Bella Perez-Rubio