{"id":269489,"date":"2020-09-22T06:00:42","date_gmt":"2020-09-22T10:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=269489"},"modified":"2020-09-22T06:42:30","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T10:42:30","slug":"prrd-might-sign-eo-to-regulate-prices-of-covid-19-tests-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/09\/22\/prrd-might-sign-eo-to-regulate-prices-of-covid-19-tests-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD might sign EO to regulate prices of Covid-19 tests: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made this statement after the Department of Health (DOH) submitted to the Office of the President a recommendation for the issuance of an EO that imposes a ceiling on the prices of RT-PCR tests. (File: KARL NORMAN ALONZO\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte might sign an executive order (EO) that will impose a price cap for reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) swab tests for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), Malaca\u00f1ang said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made this statement after the Department of Health (DOH) submitted to the Office of the President a recommendation for the issuance of an EO that imposes a ceiling on the prices of RT-PCR tests.<\/p>\n

Roque raised the possibility as Duterte has previously signed an EO that regulates the prices of medicines.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng Presidente po ay nag<\/em>-issue\u00a0ng<\/em>\u00a0(The President issued an) executive order imposing price caps on medicine so I don\u2019t think it is impossible for him to issue this executive order,\u201d he said in a virtual Palace briefing.<\/p>\n

Roque encouraged the public to avail of affordable RT-PCR tests donated by various institutions and enjoined hospitals and health facilities to lower the prices of their tests.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng panawagan po natin, napakadaming<\/em>\u00a0laboratories,\u00a0gobyerno po ang nag<\/em>-donate\u00a0o kaya pribadong sektor ang nag<\/em>-donate\u00a0ng makina at mga<\/em>\u00a0test kits.\u00a0Ibaba niyo po ang mga presyo<\/em>\u00a0(Our appeal is, there are many laboratories, the government or private sector donated machines and kits. Lower the prices),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He appealed to the hospitals and health facilities not to take advantage of the demand for RT-PCR test kits.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlam ko po may mga nagnanais sa inyo bagamat<\/em>\u00a0non-profit\u00a0kayo na kumita, huwag naman po. Ibigay na po natin sa taumbayan yung benepisyo pag kayo po ay nakatanggap ng libreng makina galing sa gobyerno o pribadong sektor o mga libreng mga<\/em>\u00a0testing kits (I know some of you want to earn, but don\u2019t do it. Let\u2019s give the benefit to the people if you received free machines or tests from the government or private sector),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to Roque, the prices of RT-PCR tests are also expected to lower once wide-scale pooled testing is launched.<\/p>\n

Among the hospitals and health facilities that provide low-priced RT-PCR tests ranging from PHP1,750 to PHP2,000 are:<\/p>\n

Philippine Children Medical Center (2 PCR machines, 2 extractor machines);
\nJose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital (1 PCR machine, 2 extractor machines);
\nJose B. Lingad Memorial General Hospital (1 PCR machine, 2 extractor machines);
\nPerpetual Help Medical Center \u2013 Las Pi\u00f1as (2 PCR machines, 2 extractor machines);
\nNational Kidney and Transplant Institute (1 extractor machine);
\nLung Center of the Philippines (2 extractor machines);
\nWestern Visayas Medical Center \u2013 Iloilo (1 PCR machine, 1 extractor machine);
\nVicente Sotto Memorial medical City \u2013 Cebu (1 extractor machine);
\nUniversity of Cebu Medical Center \u2013 Cebu (1 extractor machine);
\nEastern Visayas Regional Medical Center \u2013 Tacloban, Leyte (1 extractor machine);
\nBaguio General Hospital (1 PCR machine);
\nZamboanga City Medical Center (1 PCR machine);
\nPaul\u2019s Hospital \u2013 Tacloban, Leyte (1 extractor machine);
\nTeresita Jalandoni Provincial General Hospital \u2013 Negros Occidental (1 PCR machine);
\nCebu Molecular Laboratory (1 PCR machine); and
\nCurrently, the prices of RT-PCR testing vary in each testing facility.<\/p>\n

In February, Duterte signed Executive Order No. 104 or Improving Access to Healthcare through the Regulation of Prices in the Retail of Drugs and Medicines to impose price regulation through a maximum retail price (MRP), maximum wholesale price (MWP) on certain drugs and medicines.<\/p>\n

The EO helped cut prices of over 100 drugs by around 56 percent from their prevailing market prices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte might sign an executive order (EO) that will impose a price cap for reverse transcription polymerase …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":268054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-269489","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\/269489","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\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269489"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":269497,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269489\/revisions\/269497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}