Malacañang bared that the government is planning to buy 500,000 antigen kits for the house-to-house testing of residents against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as the country experiences an alarming rise of cases.
Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque made the announcement after President Duterte approved placing the Greater Manila Area under the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) from March 29 to April 4.
In his press briefing on Saturday, Roque said it was important to augment the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test to identify the people who got COVID-19 and to isolate them.
According to Roque, the 500,000 kits the government is planning to buy will be used to conduct house-to-house tests.
"There is a brand of antigen test that has a high efficacy rate and is approved by our Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Health (DOH) and we will be buying 500,000 of those antigen testing kits to augment our RT-PCR," he said in mixed English and Filipino.
"These will be used especially for the CODE (Coordinated Operations to Defeat Epidemic) or the house-to-house visits to look for those with symptoms so they can be tested and then isolated," he added.
The Palace official said that the house-to-house visits are not a violation of human rights.
"Wala naman pong violation of human rights diyan (No human rights will be violated) because this is part and parcel of an ongoing quarantine," Roque said.
According to Roque, the Philippines, currently, can conduct 51,000 tests per day. He, however, did not provide a timeline for the purchase of the new testing kits or the CODE visits.
Meanwhile, governments of Central Luzon, the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), and the provinces of Quezon and Batangas were instructed to implement enhanced prevent, detect, isolation, treatment, and rehabilitation (PDITR) measures.
The Philippines has registered 9,595 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, March 27, bringing the total number of infections to 712,442.