Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 20) — Due to the current health system capacity and limited resources of the country, it would not be “cost-effective” to test individuals who do not show symptoms of COVID-19 for the meantime.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire made this clarification on Wednesday in a virtual hearing of the House Defeat COVID-19 Committee, following public clamor to ramp up the government’s testing efforts as it gradually eased operations and movement in various areas under community quarantine.
“It’s really the capacity of the system. Our laboratories are choking because of all this surge in the number of tests that are being done,” Vergeire told lawmakers of the health and COVID-19 response cluster.
“We are saying it’s not cost-effective because we are considering the existing resources of the country right now for testing. Alam po nating lahat na napakaliit pa lang ‘yung ating kapasidad ng testing (We all know that our testing capacity is very limited),” she said.
Vergeire made these remarks in response to the queries of lawmakers as the panel deliberated House Bill 6707, which seeks to include vulnerable groups who are asymptomatic from the virus in the government’s testing coverage.
According to Vergeire, the government is not currently testing asymptomatic individuals or those who do not exhibit symptoms without exposure to patients with COVID-19, as the government wants to focus on “those who are vulnerable and those who are severely ill.”
“Kung ite-test natin iyong asymptomatic ngayon, bukas, (If we were to test those who are asymptomatic today or tomorrow), the person could have a different set of exposure. Do we retake it again? That is not cost effective,” she added.
For Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo, an economist, budget should also not be an “excuse” for the agency not to conduct mass testing.
“The budget itself is never a parameter in a cost-benefit analysis. In other words, if there is an activity like mass testing, which is not costly but the benefits are huge, then you find the budget for that,” she said.
“The cost of not testing is not knowing the asymptomatics. What is the cost of lockdown? ₱18 billion per day. That is a tremendous cost,” the lawmaker added.
The Department of Health said on Tuesday that it is engaging in an “expanded” targeted testing policy, intended for people manifesting COVID-19 symptoms and those who have been exposed to COVID-19 positive cases for the meantime.
Malacañang earlier insisted that holding mass testing would be “physically impossible” to conduct among millions of residents of the country.
The government is aiming to have at least 66 functional testing laboratories by the end of the month to reach its goal of 30,000 daily tests.
The country currently has 37 licensed laboratories, 31 of which are RT-PCR testing centers and 6 are GeneXpert laboratories.
So far, the government can only conduct an average of 9,400 tests per day, Vergeire said.
