Swab, saliva tests now cheaper – PRC

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Red Cross will reduce the prices of reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and saliva tests in all PRC molecular laboratories to get more Filipinos tested for COVID-19, an official announced yesterday.

PRC chairman and Sen. Richard Gordon said they decided to slash testing service costs by 25 percent for both RT-PCR and saliva tests.

Starting tomorrow, prices will be P2,800 for RT-PCR swabs from P3,800, and P1,500 for saliva test from P2,000.

“We reduced the cost of our RT-PCR tests to help our citizens. By lowering the price of COVID-19 testing, we can test more people,” Gordon said.

The PRC announced the price reduction for COVID-19 testing two days after its molecular laboratories breached the four million mark of specimens tested since April last year.

The PRC has established 13 molecular laboratories across the country.

“What’s important here is we can test more people, we can know who has COVID-19 and we can move faster to isolate patients so we can save more lives,” Gordon said.