Experts from the OCTA Research team urged the government to immediately resolve the debt issue between the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) and the Philippine Red Cross (PRC), which has been affecting the COVID-19 monitoring in the country.

In its latest report released on Tuesday, Oct. 27, the group said that PRC's suspension of its COVID-19 testing this month is largely affecting the daily screening of the country’s possible infections.

“Without the testing facilities provided by the PRC, our isolation, quarantine, and contact tracing programs are crippled because the local government units do not know whether or not a person is infected with COVID-19 within the 24 to 48 hour time period required,” the OCTA said in its report.

The researchers emphasized that PRC contributes at least 30 percent of the country’s total testing capacity, which has largely helped in the conduct of COVID-19 screening in the Philippines.

Since the PRC decided to halt its testing operations, OCTA said that the daily COVID-19 tests in Metro Manila has been reduced to 40 percent, with a 40 to 50 percent drop if Cavite, Laguna, and Batangas were included.

In Metro Manila, which is currently the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, the affected areas include Quezon City, Manila, Pasig, Makati, Taguig, Pasay, Paranaque, Mandaluyong, Muntinlupa, San Juan, and Pateros.

While in CALABARZON, the pause in PRC testing affected the numbers in Antipolo, Cainta, and Taytay in Rizal; Imus, Dasmariñas, General Trias, and Bacoor in Cavite; Batangas City; and in Calamba, Laguna.

According to OCTA, the suspension of PRC's testing operations has made our public health authorities and pandemic management teams “blind” because of less accurate information.

“Accurate testing information and increased testing capacity are crucial to managing the pandemic,” it added.

Based on OCTA's monitoring report, the daily new COVID-19 cases decreased in the capital region since Oct. 11 due to the suspension of PRC’s testing operations. OCTA, however, estimated that average daily new cases in NCR from that date will increase by 200 to 300 if PRC tests are included.

The analysts also pointed out that providing accessible and reliable COVID-19 testing for medical frontliners and incoming overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) is another reason for the national government to urgently fix the row between Philhealth and PRC.

“An example of the crippling effect of the PRC testing break is that thousands of our OFWs are now stranded and languishing in quarantine facilities, at great cost to the government, still awaiting their tests and test results that have all been delayed because of the impasse,” it noted.

The PRC earlier announced that it was discontinuing its participation in the testing of specific sectors, whose COVID-19 tests are shouldered by PhilHealth, including arriving OFWs, as the overdue balance of PhilHealth to PRC had already reached nearly P1 billion.