By Analou De Vera The guidelines of the Department of Health (DOH) for the use of rapid antibody test kits for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been approved by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID). Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles
(PCOO / MANILA BULLETIN) This was announced by Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles in a press briefing on Saturday. "The DOH guidelines for the utilization of rapid antibody test kits as presented and amended are hereby approved," said Nograles. Nograles said that the details of the use of rapid test kits would be released on Monday, April 20. Meanwhile, the local government units (LGUs) should only purchase rapid antibody test kits that were approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). "Alam ko po maraming LGUs ngayon, on their own, are already thinking about buying rapid test kits. Ang tanging payo lang po namin sa mga bibili ng rapid test kits, please lang po, ang bilhin nyo yung mga in-accredit na ng FDA natin," said Nograles. (I know that many LGUs, on their own, are already thinking about buying rapid test kits. My advice is to please purchase those that have been accredited by the FDA.) The use of such test kits must be administered by a physician to avoid false positive and false negative results, said Nograles. To note, there are now 16 rapid antibody test kits approved by the FDA. Faster COVID-19 test kits Nograles also reported that the country has acquired a new testing kit for COVID-19 that has a faster turnaround time. The test kit is called GeneXpert, said Nograles. "May bagong testing kit na rin na pumasok sa ating bansa, dumating na kahapon, yung GeneXpert. Yung GeneXpert po is also a lab-based testing kit or device pero ang kagandahan nito is 45 minutes na lang po ang turnaround time," he said. (There is a new testing kit that arrived in the country yesterday, it's called GeneXpert. GeneXpert is a lab-based testing kit or device, but the good thing about it is that it has only a turnaround time of 45 minutes.) "It's not like yung PCR (polymerase chain reaction) lab-based natin na kung saan ang turnaround is 24 hours, minsan 48 hours depende sa queuing," he added. (It's not like the PCR lab-based test kit that has a turnaround time of 24 hours, sometimes 48 hours depending on the queuing.) Nograles said that around 3,000 GeneXpert cartridges have arrived in the country. Three test kits would now be used in the country - the PCR, rapid antibody, and the GeneXpert, he said. With this development, Nograles said that they expect to achieve their target of conducting 8,000 to 10,000 tests per day by the end of this month.