Pooled testing can now be used after it was approved by the Department of Health (DOH), testing czar Vivencio Dizon said on Tuesday.
"Finally po lumabas na ang guidelines for pooled testing ito ay na-approve na ng ating DOH at ngayon siya ay pools of five (Finally the guidelines for the pooled testing has been released after it was approved by the DOH and now we can use pools of five)," Dizons said during a Malacanang press briefing.
"Limang specimen kada test so makakatipid po tayo. Limang specimen so divided by five yung magiging cost na lang ng PCR test (We can have five specimens per test, the cost of the PCR test will be divided by five)," he added.
Dizon explained that "Sa loob po ng guidelines ng DOH ito po ay maari nating gamitin sa mga sitwasyon na mababa ang incidence ng potensyal ng pagkakahawa ng COVID-19 (Under the DOH guidelines, pooled testing may be used in situations where there is low incidence of potential COVID-19 infection).
He noted that it could be used in areas where there is low positivity rate and may be also used on returning Overseas Filipino Workers who have a low positivity rate.
In a Palace press briefing last year, Dizon explained how pooled testing works.
"Ang pooled testing po ay ginagamit kapag sa isang grupo halimbawa mga OFWs, pwede nating pagsamahin ang mga sample ng sampu o kahit dalawampung OFW. Kapag negative po yung isang test dun sa sampu o dalawampu eh negative na po lahat (Pooled testing is used for example in OFWs, we can consolidate the samples of 10 or 20 of them. If one of the 10 or 20 becomes negative, everyone will test negative)," he explained.
"Kapag positive, papaliitin ang pool. So magmula dalawampu, gagawing sampu. At kung yung isang sampu ay negative negative na lahat yung sampu. Kapag yung isang pool may positive hahanapin po papaliitin nang papaliitin yung pool hanggat mahanap yung positibong pasyente (If the test comes out positive, the pool will be reduced. So from 20, it will become 10. If the half will be negative, the other half will also be negative. If the other pool will have a positive, the pool will be reduced until the positive patient is found)," he added.
Under the approved DOH guidelines, however, only pools of five are allowed.
Meanwhile, he mentioned that at the start of the temporary travel restriction imposed on December 22, 2020, up to January 3, 74 tested positive for COVID-19 which translates to a two percent positivity rate.
The travel ban was placed on 21 countries and territories affected by the new COVID strain to prevent its entry into the country.
"So ang mga specimen po na ito na nakuha natin sa ating mga kababayan na nanggaling doon sa 21 countries ay ipinadala na po natin sa Philippine Genome Center ng University of the Philippines at sa Research Institute for Tropical Medicine para po pag-aralan ito para malaman po natin kung merong new variant dito sa mga nagpositibong 74 (The specimen collected from our citizens who came from the 21 countries have been brought to the Philippine Genome Center of the University of the Philippines and the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine to know if the new variant is present among the 74 who were positive,"
Dizon also disclosed that the country has conducted 6.83 million COVID-19 tests. He said that the government they are confident that they will reach in the first quarter of 2021 the 10 million target tests previously aimed last year.