IATF PR
The country now has a total of 15 facilities that can conduct Covid-19 tests, and with more institutions now undergoing the Department of Health’s accreditation process, government will soon be able to conduct as many as 3,000 tests a day.
This was revealed by Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases spokesperson Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, who on Monday announced the latest Covid-19 testing centers to obtain DOH accreditation.
According to Nograles, “naibalita na po ni Covid-19 Response Chief Implementor Sec. Carlito Galvez na meron na po tayong labing-limang testing centers sa buong bansa. (Covid-19 Response Chief Implementor Sec. Carlito Galvez has announced that we have 15 testing centers in the whole country.)”
“The new testing centers include St. Luke’s Quezon City and Bonifacio Global City, V. Luna Hospital in Quezon City, Medical City in Pasig, the Makati Medical Center, and the Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory.”
“Aside from the 15 testing centers that are now operational, there are an additional 28 institutions undergoing the DOH’s laboratory certification process, while 37 more have expressed their intention to be certified as testing centers,” added the Palace official.
In addition to this, Nograles said that the DOH is working with the Department of Science and Technology to borrow additional PCR machines and coordinating with the University of the Philippines as the latter has formed scientists-in-training teams that will work in the testing labs.
“Because of these developments, the DOH says that we are now in a better position to reach our target of 3,000 tests per day. As of yesterday, a total of 33,814 individuals have been tested for Covid-19,” said the Davao native.
Nograles explained that as the government ramps up testing and more cases are identified, it is working to ensure that there are an adequate number of quarantine facilities and beds all around the country for suspected and confirmed Covid-19 cases.
“In his latest report, Sec. Galvez says that there are now 2,673 quarantine facilities in the Philippines for suspected and probable COVID-19 cases, with a total bed capacity of 165,756,” Nograles said.
“These numbers will grow in the days and weeks to come as more and more of the identified quarantine facilities become operational.”
