{"id":273392,"date":"2020-10-29T06:40:49","date_gmt":"2020-10-29T10:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=273392"},"modified":"2020-10-29T06:40:49","modified_gmt":"2020-10-29T10:40:49","slug":"more-private-labs-willing-to-test-ofws-for-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/10\/29\/more-private-labs-willing-to-test-ofws-for-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"More private labs willing to test OFWs for Covid-19"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Covid<\/a>
Roque said OFWs and OFs need not worry about delays in their PCR test results. (File photo: United Nations COVID-19 Response\/Unsplash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 More private labs are willing to test overseas Filipinos (OFs) arriving in the country for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), Malaca\u00f1ang said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said Project ARK, a private sector initiative to boost the country\u2019s capacity to contain Covid-19, has announced readiness to process the specimen of returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and OFs while the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) has yet to pay its remaining debt to the Philippine Red Cross (PRC).<\/p>\n

\u201cNagpadala po ng abiso ang<\/em>\u00a0Project ARK\u00a0sa pamamagitan ng kaniyang<\/em>\u00a0medical director\u00a0si<\/em>\u00a0Dr. Minguita Padilla\u00a0na handa raw po sila na i<\/em>-subject\u00a0sa<\/em>\u00a0PCR testing\u00a0ang mga bumabalik na<\/em>\u00a0OFWs\u00a0at mga<\/em>\u00a0overseas Filipinos\u00a0natin sa kanilang<\/em>\u00a011 laboratories with a testing capacity of 3,000 per day (Project ARK, through its medical director Dr. Minguita Padilla, released an advisory saying they are ready to subject OFWs and OFs to PCR testing in their 11 laboratories with a testing capacity of 3,000 per day),\u201d he said in a press briefing from Panglao, Bohol.<\/p>\n

Citing Padilla, Roque said Project ARK will devote the Philippine Children\u2019s Medical Center, the Jose Rodriguez Memorial Hospital, and the JB Lingad Memorial Regional Hospital, among other hospitals for receiving the specimens of OFWs and OFs.<\/p>\n

Besides Project ARK, Roque said the Philippine Airport Diagnostic Laboratory at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) has also offered to test OFWs and OFs for Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cNagpadala din po ng abiso ang<\/em>\u00a0Philippine Airport Diagnostic Laboratory.\u00a0Ito po ay isa sa dalawang pribadong<\/em>\u00a0laboratories\u00a0na nag-o-<\/em>operate\u00a0sa<\/em>\u00a0NAIA\u00a0na handa rin po silang magbigay ng<\/em>\u00a0PCR tests\u00a0sa mga bumabalik na<\/em>\u00a0OFWs\u00a0natin sa kaparehong halaga na sinisingil ng<\/em>\u00a0Philippine Red Cross (The Philippine Airport Diagnostic Laboratory also released an advisory. This is one of the two private laboratories operating in NAIA willing to perform PCR tests for returning OFWs that charge the same about as Philippine Red Cross),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said the NAIA-based laboratory can conduct 4,000 PCR tests daily.<\/p>\n

Roque said OFWs and OFs need not worry about delays in their PCR test results.<\/p>\n

\u201cYung mga bumabalik na<\/em>\u00a0OFWs,\u00a0huwag po kayo mag-alala, hinding-hindi po maaaberya ang inyong<\/em>\u00a0PCR tests (Returning OFWs, don\u2019t worry, your PCR tests will not be delayed),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Roque reassured the PRC that PhilHealth will soon pay its outstanding balance of over PHP561 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cKampante naman tayo na<\/em>\u00a0(We are confident that) since it was no less than the President who said that the Philippine government will pay,\u00a0e ano pa ba ho ang hihingin pa ng<\/em>\u00a0PRC. \u2018Yan po ay (what else can the PRC ask for. That\u2019s a) sovereign guarantee from the mouth of the President himself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also expressed hope that the PRC would continue being the government\u2019s partner in boosting the country\u2019s Covid-19 testing capacity.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, PRC chair and Senator Richard Gordon said PhilHealth should pay its debt within three days.<\/p>\n

He warned that the state insurer\u2019s debt will pile up once again if it fails to settle the remaining balance as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

PhilHealth settled half of its PHP1-billion debt to the humanitarian organization on Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

In response, the PRC said it will resume accepting samples from those covered by the PhilHealth-fund.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 More private labs are willing to test overseas Filipinos (OFs) arriving in the country for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":268141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-273392","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\/273392","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=273392"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":273397,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273392\/revisions\/273397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}