Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 23) — Health officials are hopeful the Philippines will return to its regular testing capacity once the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine goes back to its full operation by Saturday.
Health Undersecretary Ma. Rosario Vergeire on Thursday said the country’s 17 accredited testing laboratories were already processing 4,000 test samples last week.
But capacity went down starting April 18 when RITM revealed 43 of its employees have tested positive for COVID-19. The country’s main novel coronavirus testing center was forced to scale down its operations to disinfect and implement other safety measures.
Vergeire said from April 19 to 21, the number went down to 2,700 tests daily. But starting Wednesday, the testing capacity slightly went up to 3,200. She is confident it will reach 4,000 tests by Saturday.
The Department of Health earlier said it is eyeing laboratories in the country to collectively conduct 8,000 tests per day by end of April.
Vergeire said that based on initial information, no laboratory technician handling test samples tested positive for COVID-19. The RITM said the first recorded case of COVID-19 in their facility was an encoder who caught the disease in their own community.
