MANILA- The Lung Center of the Philippines is scaling down its coronavirus testing operations to address backlogs, the Department of Health said Wednesday.

Health Undersecretary Rosario Vergeire said the Lung Center had to reduce its COVID-19 tests after it caught the backlog of the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine when the latter scaled down operations last month.

"Nag-announce po ang ating Lung Center of the Philippines noong isang araw na they are scaling down processes," she said in a virtual press briefing.

(The Lung Center of the Philippines announced the other day that they are scaling down processes.)

"Ito po sa kadahilanang nagpatong-patong na po ang tests na pinapadala sa kanila," she added.

(This is due to the high number of tests they have to do.)

For now, the Philippine Red Cross will help the Lung Center in COVID-19 testing, Vergeire said.

The Philippines currently has 22 accredited COVID-19 testing centers.

As of Tuesday, the Philippines has a cumulative 9,684 confirmed COVID-19 cases including 637 deaths, and 1,408 recoveries.

• COVID-19 cases in the Philippines nears 10,000 with 199 new patients