{"id":260358,"date":"2020-07-03T05:37:25","date_gmt":"2020-07-03T09:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=260358"},"modified":"2020-07-03T05:37:25","modified_gmt":"2020-07-03T09:37:25","slug":"govt-to-expand-testing-strategy-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/07\/03\/govt-to-expand-testing-strategy-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov\u2019t to expand testing strategy: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: Medical personnel perform a swab test on returning overseas Filipino workers at the Palacio de Maynila along Roxas Boulevard in Malate, Manila on Sunday (May 10, 2020). (PNA photo by Avito Dalan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The government will further ramp up its efforts by conducting tests even to people who are not exhibiting symptoms of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), Malaca\u00f1ang said on Friday.<\/p>\n

This, after the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) has approved the expansion of the testing strategy to fully utilize the 10 million reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PRC) test kits procured by the Budget and Health departments, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said.<\/p>\n

\u201cKasama na po sa ite<\/em>-test\u00a0ay hindi lang ang mga<\/em>\u00a0symptomatic\u00a0at hindi lang \u2018yung mga nagkaroon ng<\/em>\u00a0contact\u00a0sa mga mayroong<\/em>\u00a0Covid-19.\u00a0Kasama na rin po ang mga<\/em>\u00a0asymptomatic (People who will be tested include not only those symptomatic and exposed to Covid-19 patient. We will also include those asymptomatic),\u201d he said during the Laging Handa program.<\/p>\n

Roque said testing targets, as well as implementation items and timelines of the expanded testing strategy, will be subject to guidelines jointly prepared by the National Task Force, the Department of Health (DOH), and the DOH\u2019s Technical Advisory Group.<\/p>\n

He said there was also a plan to include front-liners, including media workers and other government personnel, in the expanded targeted testing for Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cIto ay ibabase pa rin sa<\/em>\u00a0expanded testing strategy\u00a0na<\/em>\u00a0subject\u00a0sa<\/em>\u00a0guidelines\u00a0na i<\/em>-issue\u00a0po ng<\/em>\u00a0National Task Force\u00a0at<\/em>\u00a0DOH (This will still be based on the expanded testing strategy subject to guidelines that will be issued by the National Task Force and DOH),\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

On June 29, National Task Force against Covid-19 deputy chief implementer Vince Dizon announced that the government is now aiming to test 10 million Filipinos in the next eight to 10 months.<\/p>\n

On Friday, around 11 individuals representing various sectors asked the Supreme Court (SC) to order the government to conduct free mass testing for Covid-19.<\/p>\n

Former Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo, along with 10 other petitioners, filed a petition for mandamus before the SC to direct the current administration to conduct free mass testing, as they cited violations to Filipinos\u2019 rights to health and information.<\/p>\n

Roque was confident that the high tribunal would junk the petition since the government is already conducting expanded targeted testing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIbabasura po iyan ng<\/em>\u00a0Korte Suprema\u00a0kasi sa mula\u2019t mula po, mayroon po tayong programa na<\/em>\u00a0targeted testing (That will be dismissed by the Supreme Court because from the very start, we already have the targeted testing program),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As of June 28, a total of 636,291 individuals have undergone Covid-19 testing in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 The government will further ramp up its efforts by conducting tests even to people who are not exhibiting symptoms …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":255999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-260358","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\/260358","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=260358"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":260359,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260358\/revisions\/260359"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}