Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 9)— Malacañang on Thursday admitted the government could have done better in its COVID-19 response by boosting lab testing capacity immediately after the country recorded its first virus case.
In his virtual media briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said it took two months before the country rolled out other testing laboratories apart from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).
“If I were to look back, what we could have done better, siguro po noong nagkaroon tayo ng unang kaso na imported case ng COVID, ay dapat pinalawak na natin ‘yung testing capacity natin kaagad,” Roque said when asked of possible lapses in the government’s pandemic response.
“Inaamin natin na medyo naging mabagal yung proseso na lumipas po ang dalawang buwan, iisa lang po yung ating testing facility, RITM,” he added. “Marso pa lang tayo nagsimula na magkaroon ng mas marami pang mga laboratories.”
[Translation: If I were to look back, what we could have done better, perhaps when we had our first imported case of COVID, we should have immediately increased our testing capacity. We admit the process was a bit slow since it took two months before we added more laboratories.]
The Philippines reported its first confirmed case of coronavirus in January — a 38-year-old female Chinese national who travelled to the country from Wuhan, the Chinese city where the outbreak originated.
RITM has since become the main facility for the mysterious virus’ detection. It was in March when the Department of Health (DOH) announced that five more sub-national laboratories opened their doors for testing.
Despite this, Roque pointed out that the country was able to establish dozens more laboratories — now more than 70 — to help beef up testing protocols for the viral disease.
To date, the Philippines has logged over 50,000 cases of COVID-19, as of DOH’s latest record.
