Data from the Department of Health show a decline in the number of COVID-19 tests for the past few days amid the temporary suspension of the Philippine Red Cross on PhilHealth-funded testing due to Php 930-M overdue balance.
Samples tested on October 18 have declined to 18,420 from the 33,613 samples in October 15. The number of individuals tested in the same period fell to 16,790 from 31,198, while testing backlogs have increased to 1,188 from 306.
“Without the Philippine Red Cross, our testing capacity is reduced by 20 percent, at a time when we need to even increase testing because we’re opening up,” Prof. Ranjit Rye of OCTA Research raised.
As of October 18, 2020, the cumulative testing output of the country has reached 4,397,365. More than one million or 25 percent of the total tests were conducted by Philippine Red Cross laboratories.
“In Quezon City, ang laki ng ibinaba sa testing (testing has largely declined). It’s because they rely so much on PRC. So makikita mo (You can see), it has an impact on positivity rate, has an impact on the overall picture of where the pandemic is,” Rye pointed out.
Meanwhile, experts are seeing a drop in the number of newly reported cases nationwide, including the National Capital Region.
Latest monitoring report of OCTA Research show that the reproduction number in the country and NCR are lower than one.
“While we move forward, we need to be mindful that the virus is still there. It’s still a clear and present danger to all of us, that the trends that we see are good, over that last, close to 2 months, we’ve been on a downward trend for close to 2 months,” Rye advised.
Makati, Baguio City, Mandaluyong, Lucena, Pasig, Iloilo City, Pasay, Marikina, Ilagan, and Batangas City are considered as high-risk areas which require monitoring due to their high attack rate.
As of Oct. 20, there are 360,775 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 310,642 recoveries, and 6,690 fatalities nationwide. – Report from Mark Fetalco
