{"id":278569,"date":"2020-12-14T06:47:19","date_gmt":"2020-12-14T11:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=278569"},"modified":"2020-12-14T06:47:19","modified_gmt":"2020-12-14T11:47:19","slug":"ph-now-has-192-covid-19-testing-labs-5-8m-individuals-tested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/12\/14\/ph-now-has-192-covid-19-testing-labs-5-8m-individuals-tested\/","title":{"rendered":"PH now has 192 Covid-19 testing labs; 5.8M individuals tested"},"content":{"rendered":"
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To date, DOH recorded a total of 6,236,830 cumulative samples tested and 5,874,023 individuals tested. Meanwhile, the cumulative positivity rate is at 8.7 percent as of Dec. 12. (Photo; Philippine Army\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The Department of Health on Monday said the country now has a total 192 licensed coronavirus diseases 2019 (Covid-19) testing laboratories nationwide that have tested more than 5.8 million Filipinos for the disease.<\/p>\n

As part of the prevent and detect pillars under the Prevent-Detect-Isolate-Treat-Reintegrate strategy of the government against Covid-19, the DOH has placed importance on strengthening the nation’s testing capacity.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs of today, every region has a licensed RT-PCR laboratory. Meron na po tayong (We already have) 147 real-time RT-PCR laboratories and 45 GeneXpert laboratories across the nation,\u201d Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III said.<\/p>\n

He said the two laboratory types process both reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests but only differ on how the laboratory samples are processed.<\/p>\n

\u201cBukod pa rito<\/em>\u00a0(Aside from these), there are 55 laboratories applying for accreditation that are already on Stages 3 and 4 or the compliance and proficiency testing stages. Eto po ay 68 percent\u00a0ng kabuuang bilang ng mga laboratoryong nag-a<\/em>-apply\u00a0kaya makakaasa po tayo na mas lalawak pa ang<\/em>\u00a0testing capacity\u00a0ng bansa<\/em>\u00a0(This is 68 percent of the total laboratories that applied and we expect to further boost the country\u2019s testing capacity),\u201d Duque said.<\/p>\n

To date, DOH recorded a total of 6,236,830 cumulative samples tested and 5,874,023 individuals tested. Meanwhile, the cumulative positivity rate is at 8.7 percent as of Dec. 12.<\/p>\n

While the DOH noted an increase in laboratories, Duque warned the public to still be cautious on the threat of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cBagama\u2019t patuloy na lumalawak ang ating kakayahan na ma-test ang mga<\/em>\u00a0close contact\u00a0at mga<\/em>\u00a0symptomatic,\u00a0mariin pa rin po naming ipinapaalala na<\/em>\u00a0your test result is not your immunity passport.\u00a0Kahit<\/em>\u00a0negative\u00a0ang<\/em>\u00a0result\u00a0ng inyong<\/em>\u00a0swab test\u00a0ay maaari pa rin po kayong mahawa kung hindi kayo mag-iingat<\/em>\u00a0(Though we increased our capacity to test close contacts and asymptomatic, we still remind that your test result is not your immunity passport. Though your swab test is negative, you can still contract virus if you are not careful),\u201d Duque said.<\/p>\n

Duque reminded the public to always observe the minimum public health standards such as wearing of face masks and face shields, washing of hands, and physical distancing.<\/p>\n

\u201cSumunod din po tayo sa mga ordinansa na ipinapatupad ng national at lokal na pamahalaan. Manatili po tayong maingat sapagkat andito pa rin ang<\/em>\u00a0virus\u00a0at<\/em>\u00a0(Let\u2019s follow ordinances being implemented by the national and local governments. Let\u2019s keep protecting ourselves because virus still here and) prevention is always better than cure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 The Department of Health on Monday said the country now has a total 192 licensed coronavirus diseases 2019 (Covid-19) …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":271923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-278569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ma-teresa-montemayor","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278569","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=278569"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":278579,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278569\/revisions\/278579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}