PH now has 85 Covid-19 labs; to exceed 1M tests soon

MANILA – The country now has 85 reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing laboratories for Covid-19, National Policy Against Covid-19 deputy chief implementer Vivencio Dizon said.

“As we increased the number of our laboratories in May to June, our testing reached nearly 1 million as of June 11,” Dizon said in a Palace briefing Monday.

He said the country will surpass its target of 1 million Covid-19 testing in the next few days.

The government targets to reach 1 million Covid-19 testing by the end of July.

The Covid-19 testing czar also said daily testing capacity in the National Capital Region (NCR) increased from 2,500 in April to 16,000 daily testing in July.

Dizon attributed the increment in testing capacity in Metro Manila to efforts of the local government units (LGUs) and cooperation of the private sector.

There are swabbing centers located in NCR, including the mega swabbing facility located in Mall of Asia in Pasay City where thousands of individuals visit the facility to give their specimens for testing, Dizon said.

Metro Manila has the most number of Covid-19 cases in the country with 22,240 individuals infected with the coronavirus as of July 12.

“We need to intensify our testing capacity because that is the only way for us to find those infected in our community to isolate them so they cannot infect other people and we can slow down the spread of Covid-19,” Dizon said.