DEPARTMENT of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Thursday, October 22, 2020, admitted that the decision of the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) to suspend swab tests charged to the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) has affected testing output.
Based on DOH data, testing output decreased and the backlog widened after PRC announced the suspension on October 15 because of PhilHealth’s failure to pay its outstanding balance of about P930 million.
The decline in tests conducted may have also impacted DOH’s daily reports on new coronavirus cases, deaths and recoveries.
The swab samples tested nationwide declined by more than 32 percent to an average of 22,423 a day from October 18 to 20, after the PRC suspension of PhilHealth-paid tests, compared to 33,186 daily average from October 13 to 15, or just before PRC announced the suspension.
The number of individuals tested also decreased by 33.19 percent to an average of 20,714 a day for the October 18 to 20 period from 31,006 average per day from October 13 to 15.
The testing backlog soared to an average of 1,654 a day from October 18 to 20, eight times the 205 daily average from October 13 to 15.
Vergeire acknowledged the effect of PRC’s decision on the testing output in the country.
“We recognize that fact. Hindi po tayo magkakaila na talagang malaki po ang contribution ng Philippine Red Cross sa ating daily outputs. Makikita po natin na malalaki talaga ‘yung mga laboratoryo nila, yung kanilang kapasidad and it’s distributed across the different areas of the country,” she said in a virtual forum Thursday.
“So, yes, we were affected by the stopping of the operations of the Philippine Red Cross,” she added.
The PRC has conducted roughly one of every four RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) test conducted nationwide. The RT-PCR test examines swab samples to detect Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
As of October 18, the organization said it topped the list of laboratories with the highest number of tests at 1.099 million, or 26 percent of the total tests conducted nationwide.
Vergeire said DOH has identified 11 government laboratories that will temporarily conduct the tests that would have been conducted by the PRC.
“They (11 government laboratories) are now receiving the specimens coming from the different areas na kailangan pong ma-test (that need to be tested),” Vergeire said.
Some private laboratories such as Detoxicare and BioPath Clinical Diagnostics have also expressed interest to help, she added.
New coronavirus cases have fallen below 2,000, hitting a new low of 1,509 on October 21 for the last 44 days. The DOH reported 1,640 new cases on October 20 and 1,664 on October 22.
New infections have been decreasing since the peak of over 4,000 a day in August to an average of around 3,000 a day in September and 2,466 a day in the first half of October. (Marites Villamor-Ilano/SunStar Philippines)