{"id":259304,"date":"2020-06-25T05:33:04","date_gmt":"2020-06-25T09:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=259304"},"modified":"2020-06-25T05:33:04","modified_gmt":"2020-06-25T09:33:04","slug":"media-other-non-medical-front-liners-to-get-free-covid-19-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/06\/25\/media-other-non-medical-front-liners-to-get-free-covid-19-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Media, other non-medical front-liners to get free Covid-19 test"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Besides media, Dizon said, other non-medical front-liners who may also undergo free Covid-19 testing are the police, military, coast guard, Bureau of Fire Protection workers, barangay tanods, contact tracing teams, mortuary and cemetery workers, and social workers and other facility volunteers. (Pexels photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 All media workers who have been ensuring that the public gets news updates can avail of free coronavirus disease (Covid-19) testing, Malaca\u00f1ang said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the free polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing would be offered to reporters, cameramen and photographers, newsroom employees, and other media workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cMabuting balita po para sa mga kasama natin sa<\/em>\u00a0media.\u00a0Pati po kayo ita-trato na ring mga<\/em>\u00a0front-liners\u00a0at susubukan natin na lahat po ng miyembro ng media ay ma<\/em>-test\u00a0na rin<\/em>\u00a0via PCR (Good news for our friends in the media. You will also be treated as front-liners and we will try to ensure that all members of the media would undergo PCR testing),\u201d Roque said in a virtual presser.<\/p>\n

This comes after National Policy Against Covid-19 deputy chief implementer Vivencio \u201cVince\u201d Dizon, in the same presser, announced that the country\u2019s testing capacity has exceeded 50,000 as of June 19.<\/p>\n

Besides media, Dizon said, other non-medical front-liners who may also undergo free Covid-19 testing are the police, military, coast guard, Bureau of Fire Protection workers, barangay tanods, contact tracing teams, mortuary and cemetery workers, and social workers and other facility volunteers.<\/p>\n

Residents in hot spot villages may also receive free Covid-19 testing, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cDapat po dadagdagan pa natin ang iba\u2019t-ibang mga kailangan natin i<\/em>-test,\u00a0kasama na po ang ating mga kasamahan sa<\/em>\u00a0media\u00a0at kasama na rin po yung mga kasama natin na babalik na sa trabaho sa mga susunod na araw<\/em>\u00a0(We should add other individuals under those who need to be tested, including members of the media and those who will return to work in the coming days),\u201d Dizon said.<\/p>\n

He said all non-medical front-liners could visit either public or private labs, such as the Philippine Red Cross, to undergo testing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi lang \u2018yun proteksyon para sa kanila dahil napakadalas ng<\/em>\u00a0contact\u00a0nila sa maraming mga kababayan natin, pero proteksyon din \u2018yun sa<\/em>\u00a0community\u00a0na ma<\/em>-test\u00a0natin sila at siguraduhing hindi sila mahahawa at hindi din sila makakahawa<\/em>\u00a0(It\u2019s not only protection for them because they have frequent contact with many of our citizens but protection for the community to ensure that they do not get infected and do not infect others),\u201d Dizon said.<\/p>\n

Last June 4, he said more asymptomatic individuals may undergo Covid-19 testing besides repatriated overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and locally stranded individuals (LSIs).<\/p>\n

The government previously prioritized testing for those with Covid-19 symptoms, travel history to coronavirus-hit countries, and exposure to positive cases.<\/p>\n

With the arrival of 1.04 million Covid-19 test kits last June 21, Dizon said the goal is to conduct one million Covid-19 tests by the end of July.<\/p>\n

Currently, the country has been able to conduct about 600,000 tests.<\/p>\n

\u201cSa mga susunod na buwan, pipilitin po natin na padamihan pa ito hanggang umabot tayo sa ating<\/em>\u00a0target\u00a0na<\/em>\u00a010 (percent) to 12 percent\u00a0sa ating mga<\/em>\u00a0densely-populated areas\u00a0at sa buong bansa pipilitin na tayo sa halos<\/em>\u00a02 percent\u00a0ng ating buong populasyon<\/em>\u00a0(In the coming months we will try to increase this until we reach our target of testing 10 percent to 12 percent of individuals in densely-populated areas and 2 percent of the entire population),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As of June 24, a total of 66 laboratories can conduct 50,000 Covid-19 tests per day \u2013 41 in the public sector, 24 in the private sector, and one public-private initiative at the De La Salle University in Dasmari\u00f1as, Cavite.<\/p>\n

According to Roque, all PCR tests would be shouldered by the state insurer Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).<\/p>\n

\u201cSiyempre po ang test na ito ay babayaran ng<\/em>\u00a0PhilHealth.\u00a0Kasama po ito sa<\/em>\u00a0Diagnostics Services\u00a0na babayaran ng<\/em>\u00a0PhilHealth\u00a0sang-ayon sa<\/em>\u00a0Universal Healthcare Law (These tests will be shouldered by PhilHealth. This is included in the Diagnostics Services that PhilHealth will pay for under the Universal Healthcare Law),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Roque said the Department of the Interior and Local Government is aiming to hire some 50,000 contact tracers this month to boost the country\u2019s contact tracing capabilities and promote job creation.<\/p>\n

As of June 24, the country has recorded 32,295 confirmed Covid-19 cases, 8,656 of whom have recovered and 1,204 have died.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  MANILA\u00a0\u2013 All media workers who have been ensuring that the public gets news updates can avail of free coronavirus …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":256216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-259304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259304","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=259304"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":259305,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259304\/revisions\/259305"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}