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MANILA – The national government has been giving priority to Covid-19 testing since the pandemic started last year, Malacañang said Monday.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made this reaction on Vice President Leni Robredo’s suggestion to ramp up testing amid the increasing Covid-19 infections.
“All I can say is, sa mula’t-mula po, talagang we give a priority to testing dahil siyempre po iyan iyong ating unang sandata, kinakailangan malaman natin kung sino iyong dapat i-isolate (since the pandemic started, we really give priority to testing because that is our main weapon, we need to know who should be isolated),” Roque said in Palace press briefing.
Roque said the government has already increased its daily Covid-19 testing beyond 55,000 particularly in high-risk areas.
“We are increasing our testing beyond 55,000 ay gumagamit na rin po tayo ng antigen. Dahil mayroon naman po tayong protocols when they can be used doon sa mga areas na talagang mataas po iyong clustering ng kaso eh pupuwede pong mag-antigen (by using antigen tests. Because there are protocols when they can be used in areas where there is high clustering),” he said.
“Hindi po natin pinababayaan iyan (We are not neglecting our testing efforts), we have always recognized that testing is very crucial in the fight against Covid-19,” he added.
Earlier, Vice President Leni Robredo urged the government to boost Covid-19 testing on top of vaccination efforts to ensure that the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Metro Manila will be the “last lockdown”.
National Task Force Against Covid-19 Deputy Chief Implementer and Testing Czar Vince Dizon earlier said the country was averaging 56,000 tests a day the past week.
Meanwhile, Roque expressed optimism that the government can fully vaccinate half its target population in Metro Manila by the end of the ECQ on August 20.
“Basta patuloy lang po tayo eh makakamit po natin iyon pong ating ninanais na maubos iyong 4 million [Covid-19 doses] na ibibigay sa Metro Manila bago po magtapos ang ating ECQ (As long as we keep going, we will achieve our goal of using up the 4 million doses given to Metro Manila before the ECQ). So we are on our way to vaccinating at least 50 percent of our population here in Metro Manila,” he said.
Quarantine protocols
Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar, for his part, urged the public to continue observing minimum public health standards amid rising cases of Covid-19 nationwide.
“We call on the public to continue observing the standard health protocols of wearing of face mask, and shield, safe physical distancing, proper hygiene, and refraining from leaving your homes unless necessary, to ensure that we minimize the spread of the disease,” Andanar said.
He also enjoined the public to get inoculated with a Covid-19 vaccination by coordinating with their respective local government units (LGUs).
To stay updated on “truthful” and “reliable” news, Andanar also urged the public to monitor state-run media programs such as the Laging Handa public briefing, Network Briefing News, Laging Handa Dokyu, as well as its social media pages.
Metro Manila is under the strictest ECQ until Aug. 20 to prevent the spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant.
Composed of 16 cities, Metro Manila currently has a population of over 13 million.
On Monday, health authorities recorded 14,610 more Covid-19 infections bringing the total case count to 1,755,846.
The death toll increased to 30,366 after 27 more people died while recoveries climbed to 1,618,808 after 10,674 more patients recovered from the disease. (PNA)
