The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) said on Friday, Jan. 14 that it is looking to lower even more the price of its RT-PRC tests despite being the cheapest one around.
"Right now we offer the best-priced RT-PCR test in the country,” PRC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sen.Richard Gordon said.
According to Gordon, the humanitarian organization is finding more ways to lower its prices to make it even more affordable to the public.
“Pinagaaralan namin yan. Syempre, mayroon tayong gastusin to support our operations. (We are studying it . Of course we have our expenses to support our operations. We introduced the Saliva RT-PCR test which is also a gold standard for testing and a lower-priced alternative to Swab RT-PCR test,” he said.
Last Sept.2, 2021, PRC announced to the public that RT-PCR tests for swab and saliva prices were reduced by 25 percent. From P3,800.00 to P2,800 for a swab RT-PCR test and P2,000.00 to P1500 for a saliva RT-PCR test.
Currently, PRC has 14 molecular laboratories nationwide, which have conducted over 5 million tests accounting for a majority of all tests nationwide by a wide margin.
To make testing accessible to people who want to get tested, PRC said that it has an existing partnership with the different shopping centers such as SM Supermalls, Robinsons, Araneta City, and Ayala Malls that serve as saliva collection sites.
Due to the surging cases of COVID-19 in the country, Gordon urged the public to get tested immediately for early detection of the virus to prevent transmission. He said that even fully vaccinated individuals can still be carriers of the virus and can affect children, senior citizens, and unvaccinated individuals.