Two years into the pandemic should have been enough for the Philippine government to prepare for mass testing to help curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), presidential aspirant Vice President Leni Robredo said on Sunday, Jan. 9.
“Iyong sa akin lang, dalawang taon na iyong COVID, dapat sana (For me, the COVID is here for the past two years, I hope that) by this time, iba na iyong mga problema natin (we have other problems),” she stated on her weekly radio show over dzXL.
Government officials thumbed down calls for free mass testing because it supposedly doesn’t have enough funds to cover the tests. The 2022 Philippine national budget of P5.024 trillion has no allocation for free COVID-19 testing.
Robredo lamented that the definition of mass testing is still being debated today. Government officials refer to mass testing as testing the entire 110 million population while those who are calling for it meant it to be done in high-risk areas only.
“Dapat sana, by this time, hindi na natin problema iyong testing. Dapat, by this time, hindi na natin problema iyong bakuna. Dapat, by this time, hindi na natin problema iyong contact tracing, iyong mga isolation centers. Kasi enough time to prepare tayo (By this time, testing shouldn’t be our problem anymore. By this time, vaccines should not be our problem. By this time, contact tracing, isolation centers, should not be our problem. We have enough time to prepare),” she said.
The Vice President noted the government is just looking for a “justification” as to why it cannot provide free COVID testing when it has been almost two years since the World Health Organization (WHO) announced COVID as a global pandemic.
Antigen tests cost around P1,000 while RT-PCR tests, the gold standard for COVID testing and widely accepted by health professionals worldwide, cost from around P3,000 to as much as P7,000.
READ: Dizon: Mass testing not recommended by experts
“Sobra halaga ng testing kasi ito yun magiging basis kung kailangan mong mag-quarantine, kailangan mong mag-isolate (Testing is so important because this will be the basis if you need to quarantine, if you need to isolate),” Robredo, whose own daughter, Tricia, tested positive to COVID on Christmas Day, lamented.
Many asymptomatic individuals are “unaware” that they become spreaders of the virus because they do not have access to free testing.
She asked the government to liberate and regulate the use of the cheaper antigen kits, the results of which can come out in as fast as 15 minutes.
“Kasi iyong may mga pambili pwede nang bumili. So, sana madalian na iyong paglabas ng regulations nito para iyong mga tao hindi na nagsisiksikan (Those who have the means can buy. So, I hope they can hasten the release of the regulations for this so the people won’t be crowding ),” Robredo said.
Her own free mobile antigen testing program, Swab Cab, uses antigen kits to do surveillance testing on areas with high transmission rates. Positive individuals will be subjected to RT-PCR tests to confirm the results of the antigen tests.
The Philippines logged a new record-high of 26,458 cases on Saturday, Jan. 8. It also has a positivity rate of 43.7 percent, another record-high.
The WHO recommends a positivity rate of less than five percent. A high positivity rate means there is a lack of testing.