{"id":249889,"date":"2020-03-25T19:57:58","date_gmt":"2020-03-25T23:57:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=249889"},"modified":"2020-03-25T19:57:58","modified_gmt":"2020-03-25T23:57:58","slug":"doh-eyes-purchase-of-additional-covid-19-test-kits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/03\/25\/doh-eyes-purchase-of-additional-covid-19-test-kits\/","title":{"rendered":"DOH eyes purchase of additional Covid-19 test kits"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the government would purchase test kits that are \u201ccompatible\u201d to the machines used by the hospitals in the country to detect Covid-19. (File Photo: Drew Hays\/Unsplash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The government has a plan to procure additional diagnostic test kits for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) to improve the country\u2019s testing capacity as the number of infected people continues to rise, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the government would purchase test kits that are \u201ccompatible\u201d to the machines used by the hospitals in the country to detect Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cMay<\/em>\u00a0plan\u00a0ba ang ating gobyerno para tayo ay bumili ng<\/em>\u00a0Covid-19 testing kits?\u00a0Meron po tayong plano<\/em>. Does the government have a plan to buy Covid-19 testing kits? Yes, we have). We cannot rely on donations for the rest of the time we are responding to this crisis,\u201d she said in a televised press briefing.<\/p>\n

Several countries have donated testing kits to help the Philippines combat Covid-19.<\/p>\n

The Food and Drug Administration has so far approved nine Covid-19 test kits for commercial use.<\/p>\n

Vergeire said the government can now purchase new Covid-19 test kits, considering that the government will receive an additional budget for the procurement of medical supplies that will be used to stop the further spread of the coronavirus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ll be given an additional budget for us to procure items or supplies that we will need for this response,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Duterte signed Republic Act 11469 or the “Bayanihan to Heal as One Act,\u201d which grants him special powers to address the Covid-19 pandemic country.<\/p>\n

Under the new law, Duterte is allowed to realign available national budget funds to augment the national government\u2019s response to Covid-19.<\/p>\n

Meantime, Vergeire maintained that the government still cannot pursue mass testing for Covid-19, stressing that the country has no enough test kits.<\/p>\n

\u201cMay parating pa po<\/em>\u00a0(pero)\u00a0hindi pa rin po yan<\/em>\u00a0enough to serve\u00a0para po mag<\/em>-mass testing\u00a0tayong lahat<\/em>\u00a0(We will receive new test kits but those are still not enough to conduct mass testing),\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Vergeire also insisted that mass testing in the Philippines is only possible if the government has enough resources.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019Pag na<\/em>-stabilize\u00a0na po natin itong lahat sa<\/em>\u00a0laboratories\u00a0natin<\/em>\u00a0(If we are able to stabilize all our laboratories), and then we can now decide if we can go for mass testing or not,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 The government has a plan to procure additional diagnostic test kits for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) to improve the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":246428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249889"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249890,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249889\/revisions\/249890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}