Duque says DOH to launch COVID-19 home care kit soon
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health said Friday it will soon launch a COVID-19 home care kit for COVID-19 patients.
The “Kalinga Kit” will contain five pieces of face masks, alcohol, thermometer, paracetamol, and lagundi, DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III said.
“We have already close to 35,000 put together so we’ll start distributing them. But we’re also asking well-meaning companies to help us, to co-brand DOH with them to provide home kits,” Duque said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel's “Headstart.”
In April last year, the agency said it was developing a home care package for COVID-19 patients, which would have a financing mechanism.
The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. has a COVID-19 Home Isolation Benefit Package, which can be availed by asymptomatic and mild cases.
Services under the package, which offers coverage of P5,917 per claim, include consultations for a minimum of 10 days, daily monitoring of patients through teleconsultation, and provision of a home isolation kit.
The package also includes patient education and referral to a higher-level facility, if needed.
Since April 2021, the office of Vice President Leni Robredo has been providing COVID-19 patients with home care kits.
Daily cases have reached record highs in January following the detection of the hyper-transmissible Omicron variant. There are 237,387 active cases, of which 98% are mild and asymptomatic cases.
Duque also said the DOH is working to lower the prices of COVID-19 tests.
“We’ll review again because we need to scope the market. We will see more and more players, testing kit manufacturers in the market. I’m sure this is going to push the prices down,” he said.
COVID-19 tests, which cost up to P2,800 in public laboratories and up to 3,360 in private laboratories, remain unaffordable to ordinary Filipinos.
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