{"id":263327,"date":"2020-07-29T04:07:14","date_gmt":"2020-07-29T08:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=263327"},"modified":"2020-07-29T04:07:14","modified_gmt":"2020-07-29T08:07:14","slug":"pool-testing-to-cut-covid-19-test-cost-to-p300-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/07\/29\/pool-testing-to-cut-covid-19-test-cost-to-p300-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"Pool testing to cut Covid-19 test cost to P300: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: The first Mega Swabbing Center opens at the Palacio de Manila, Roxas Boulevard, Manila on Tuesday (May 5, 2020). (PNA photo by Robert Oswald P. Alfiler)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 With the pooled testing method approved \u201cin principle\u201d, Malaca\u00f1ang on Wednesday said persons only have to pay as low as PHP300 to get tested for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said pool or batch testing makes use of one reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test kit for 10 to 20 persons, which reduces the cost of testing.<\/p>\n

\u201cPool testing will expand our actual testing to at least times 10 become the minimum of the pool that they\u2019re considering. Right now it’s 10, but there\u2019s a possibility that it could be as high as 20,\u201d he said in an interview over CNN Philippines.<\/p>\n

Since the average cost of one RT-PCR test kit is around PHP3,000, Roque said 10 persons can split the bill and only pay PHP300 each.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be 10 people using one test kit. So it\u2019s divided by 10, so it will be PHP300. So now, anyone can afford to have a test,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He described pool testing as a \u201cgame-changer\u201d, since health authorities may combine samples from several people and test them together instead of running them individually.<\/p>\n

According to Roque, a negative test result will clear everyone in the group but a positive result requires all members to be individually tested.<\/p>\n

Currently, Roque said health authorities have concluded pilot study for pool testing. Further pilot testing will be conducted after new quarantine classifications are announced before the end of the month.<\/p>\n

The country is now able to conduct 30,000 Covid-19 tests per day, he added.<\/p>\n

As for contact tracing, Roque said the government will not only rely on paid contact tracers but also build an army of volunteers to intensify tracing.<\/p>\n

More isolation centers will also be built in the following days to accommodate for mild and asymptomatic Covid-19 patients, he added. If these are not enough, he said government may also use school dormitories.<\/p>\n

To ensure that there are enough intensive care unit (ICU) beds for Covid-19 patients, Roque said the government is also working to increasing its bed capacity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the hospital beds and ICU beds in Manila are at critical level, we will tap even the bed capacity of neighboring Region 3 and Region 4-A to refer patients to these vacant ICU or hospital beds,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In the following days, he vowed that there will be a more \u201cinvigorated response\u201d to the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not so much the [quarantine] classifications that will matter, but the new invigorated responses we will have on this Covid-19 pandemic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to announce the new quarantine classifications on Thursday (July 30).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 With the pooled testing method approved \u201cin principle\u201d, Malaca\u00f1ang on Wednesday said persons only have to pay as low …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":254931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-263327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263327","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=263327"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":263328,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263327\/revisions\/263328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}