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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider More than 3.5 M Filipinos tested for COVID-19

More than 3.5 M Filipinos tested for COVID-19

Published Sep 28, 2020 01:02 pm

Deputy chief implementer and testing czar Secretary Vince Dizon said the government has tested more than 3.5 million Filipinos for COVID-19.

FREE SWAB TEST – The city government called residents, workers and organization to avail the last day of free swab test today (Sept.19) from 8:a.m to 3:00 p.m at the Centralized Triage Center, Baguio Convention Center, Baguio City. (Photo by Zaldy Comanda / MANILA BULLETIN)
(Photo by Zaldy Comanda / MANILA BULLETIN)

"Well, we've gone a long way in terms of being able to test a huge number of people in our population, especially in areas that are most prone to having outbreaks of COVID-19," Dizon said.

He said that the country has breached the 3.5-million test mark and is about to reach 3.6 million.

The government targets to test roughly 10 million by early next year which is approximately 10 percent of the population.

"This is a far cry from the very, very poor testing output that we had in the beginning, especially in March, April, in May," Dizon said.

Despite this, the testing czar believes that a lot more is still needed to be done and what's important now is to test more.

Fortunately, he said, there are new technologies that are available across the world that allow testing to be faster and more efficient.

"We're talking about the antigen tests that have recently come out. We're talking about the new saliva and breath tests that have been coming out of various countries throughout the world," Dizon said.

"And we have to be ready to adapt to that very quickly so kailangan mabilis tayong mag adapt at mabilis nating magamit itong mga bagong technologies na ito (So we have to be quick to adapt and we should swift in utilizing these new technologies)," he added.

Dizon said that they are waiting for the Department of Health and regulators to come out with the guidelines for this.

"We are already doing pilot testing of antigen test in Baguio so we're waiting for the results there but I think we can do this faster no dapat mas mabilis tayo mag adapt (we should be fast in adapting)," he added.

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