Based on recent figures from Our World in Data, an England-based data and research platform, the Philippines now conducts the most number of COVID-19 tests compared to its regional Southeast Asian counterparts.
As of end-July, Our World in Data’s graph shows that the country has increased its number of people tested on a seven-day average to more than 30,000, more than Indonesia’s 12,777 tests, Malaysia’s 6,494 tests, Singapore’s 5,551 tests, Thailand’s 1,926 tests and Myanmar’s 1,126 tests. Vietnam recorded a high of 10,906 tests.
“One of the major challenges we’ve had in the past months was testing. But now, we are able to aggressively conduct more tests with the 100 laboratories already accredited from only 1 lab in February,” says National Action Plan Against COVID-19 Deputy Chief Implementer and Testing Czar Vince Dizon.
Recent data from the Department of Health show the Philippines has conducted a total of 1.703 million tests.
“The government is heightening its response to lessen the transmission of the coronavirus that’s why we’re continuously ramping up our testing, along with the other equally important measures such as aggressive contact tracing and isolation, as well as effective treatment of COVID-19 patients,” he added.
The One Hospital Command Center located at the MMDA Operations Center in Makati City was recently launched for a more efficient health facility referral system for COVID-19 patients. The command center will facilitate medical transport and patient pick-up arrangements, provide health system capacity data analytics and risk communications, and optimize the use of critical care services of every hospital in Metro Manila.
