Duterte to announce new quarantine classifications on July 30; gov’t to conduct massive “pooled testing” – Palace

July 29, 2020

President Rodrigo Duterte is set to announce on Thursday, July 30, the new quarantine classifications for various places in the country, Malacañang said on Wednesday.

In a television interview, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the local government units have been given time to appeal on the new classifications to be effective on August 1.

"It will be the President that will announce it on Thursday, if I am not mistaken," Roque said on the quarantine status.

"And there are still appeals to be made by the local government units. So the recommendations are all preliminary subject to finalization on Thursday," he added.

The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases met last Tuesday and discussed the possible new quarantine protocols.

Roque indicated there will be "major changes" in the government's response to the pandemic.

"We now have that capability to conduct more actual testing. We will use our capacity to conduct more testing on a daily basis. We have hit more than 30,000 a day and we will continue to test many people on a daily basis.  We will aim to test more and we will invigorate our tracing," he said.

He said the government is building more and more isolation facilities since mild and asymptomatic coronavirus disease cases cannot stay home unless they have their own bathrooms and bedrooms.

"So, it’s not so much to the classification that will matter, but the responses, the new invigorated responses that we will have in this COVID-19 pandemic," Roque said.

Roque also said the government will also implement "massive targeted testing involving pooled testing" after July 31.

"Massive, massive targeted testing involving pooled testing that would multiply our actual testing by at least ten, and that would reduce the cost of PCR testing to as low as 300 pesos per person," Roque said when asked on major changes on the government's COVID-19 response. Celerina Monte/DMS