The Philippines must conduct more coronavirus tests to detect and treat patients after it remained one of the three Southeast Asian nations “struggling” to contain the outbreak, presidential adviser for entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion said yesterday.
Concepcion said intensified testing efforts may show a rise of coronavirus cases but the government can have better control of the health situation and restore public confidence amid the gradual reopening of the economy.
“The Philippines is doing quite well but still looking at the other ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries, they have it under better control so we have to test more people,” he said during the “Laging Handa” public briefing.
“Once we test, there will be more infections. You can see it will lead to more cases that is because we are testing more but at least we can control it, we will know and identify where the problem is and isolate, trace, and control the infection,” he said.
Concepcion admitted that while micro, small, and medium enterprises have been allowed to operate, they are “disappointed” since the consumer traffic is still low. “We have to bring back confidence to the Filipino people that we are in control of the health situation,” he said.
He stressed the importance of coronavirus testing amid the high number of cases recorded in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Singapore, compared to other neighbors in the 10-member regional bloc.
“The Philippines, together with Indonesia and Singapore, we’re not there yet. We’re one of the three countries that are struggling in controlling the level,” he said. “Without testing, we will not be able to control our health situation in the country and that’s why it is very important.”
In the region, Indonesia has so far the most number of infections with 50,187 and 2,620 deaths as of June based on global tracking by Johns Hopkins University. The cases of coronavirus in Singapore has reached 42,726 while the death toll is at 26.
As of June 25, around 33,069 people have been infected with the coronavirus disease in the Philippines. At least 1,212 people have died due to the illness.
Concepcion said the private sector is working closely with the government in helping stem the spread of the pandemic from community-level testing to upgrading certain public hospitals with modern equipment.
He said 1.3 million rapid test kits worth P400 million to P500 million have been purchased by the private sector under the Project ARK initiative. Around 350 companies have joined the community-level testing program to track down patients with COVID-19.
He said the private sector also started to fund research on “pooled PCR (polymerase chain reaction) testing” where samples of many individuals will be analyzed in a single test. Preliminary results of the pooled testing strategy are expected to be released in the next two weeks. (Genalyn Kabiling)