The Daily Manila Shimbun

 

Gov’t eyes 1 million tests for COVID-19 by July; says only 5% positive cases

June 25, 2020



The government is eyeing one million tests for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) by July as the rate of positive cases is now only about five percent of those tested, the National Task Force Against COVID-19 said on Thursday.

In a virtual press briefing, NTF Deputy Chief Implementer and Bases Conversion and Development Authority president and CEO Vivencio Dizon said  as of June 22, over 600,000 tests for COVID-19 have been done in the country.

During the early months of testing, he said 20 percent of those who underwent RT-PCR testing were found positive for coronavirus.

"Now, because of our interventions during the past few months and because we have tested many people already, even if the number of positive cases has been rising, the percent of those positive is almost five percent only," Dizon said.

Quoting the World Health Organization, he said the "five percent positivity rate and lower is a sign that the country's management of COVID-19 cases is doing well."

"We're nearing that," Dizon said as he stressed the need to further conduct tests.

With the arrival of 1.05 million test kits last June 21, Dizon said more tests could be done and these would be shouldered by Philippine Health Insurance Corp.

"Because of the arrival of more supplies, our goal in order to use these test (kits) and to benefit our fellowmen is one million tests by July," he said.

And in the coming months, he said the government would target to test 10 to 12 percent of densely populated areas in the country or about two percent of the estimated 110 million population, prioritizing highly populated areas like Metro Manila, Calabarzon, Central Luzon, Cebu and Davao.

The official also expressed hope to increase actual tests per day to 20,000 to 25,000 from the current about 16,000 a day.

As of Wednesday, COVID-19 cases in the country reached 32,295, with 8,656 recoveries and 1,204 deaths.

Dizon said the confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country is much lower compared to other similarly populated countries in the world.

"Our cases right now is about 32,000. Compared to other big countries like America, like countries in Europe, like countries in Latin America, this is small compared to the cases and deaths of these countries," he said.

Asked how is the Philippines compared with its neighboring countries in terms of COVID-19 cases, Dizon said, "I think the Philippines has probably one of the lowest cases as well as one of the lowest deaths."

But according to worldometer.info, the Philippines ranked 39th with the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases out of 213 countries and territories affected by the virus in the world and third in the 10 member countries of ASEAN.

Indonesia has the highest number of cases in ASEAN with more than 50,000, followed by Singapore with over 42,000. Celerina Monte/DMS