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Palace: Philippines can't afford to test all citizens for COVID-19

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Arianne Merez, ABS-CBN News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2020/news/07/09/20180123-presidential-spokesperson-roque-mnib-01-s.jpg"/><figcaption>Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque. Toto Lozano, Presidential Photo/File</figcaption></figure></div>MANILA - While it would be good to test all Filipinos for COVID-19, Malacañang said Tuesday the Philippines simply cannot afford it.President Rodrigo Duterte earlier asked Health Secretary Francisco Duque III if the government has the capacity to test &quot;every citizen in this country,&quot; to which the latter responded that it could not be done.&quot;If we cannot afford it why not? But the reality is hindi natin maa-afford ang testing sa lahat ng 110 million na Filipinos pero gagawa po ng hakbang ang gobyerno para mas maparami pa ang testing natin,&quot; Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a Palace press briefing.(The reality is we cannot afford to test all 110 million Filipinos but the government will find ways to expand our testing.)<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/06/23/20/doh-studying-pooled-sampling-for-time-cost-efficient-covid-19-testing">DOH studying ‘pooled sampling’ for time-, cost-efficient COVID-19 testing</a></li></ul>There has been public calls for mass testing, with advocates clarifying that it does not mean testing all Filipinos. The government, according to Roque, is already considering pooled COVID-19 testing to maximize the use of test kits.With pooled testing, samples from a group of individuals would be tested as one. If the results come back negative, everyone in the group is cleared of COVID-19. But if the results return positive, each individual will be tested separately for the virus.&quot;Easily, 25 million people can be tested using pooled testing at &#x27;yan na po ang hakbang na ginagawa ng gobyerno dahil alam natin na &#x27;pag na-test at nahanap natin sino ang may COVID-19 pupwede na sila i-isolate nang hindi na makahawa,&quot; Roque said.(This is the step being taken by the government because we know that once we test and find who has COVID-19, we can easily isolate them so that they could no longer infect others.)The Philippines&#x27; current COVID-19 testing program prioritizes symptomatic patients, vulnerable individuals, and frontliners with a high risk of contracting the virus.Authorities have run some 1.12 million tests as of July 20. Duque said the health department eyes testing 10 million people or about a tenth of the country&#x27;s 100 million by 2021.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/07/21/20/philippines-eyes-10-million-coronavirus-tests-cant-test-all-filipinos-health-secretary">Philippines eyes 10 million coronavirus tests, can&#x27;t test all Filipinos: health secretary</a></li></ul>

While it would be good to test all Filipinos for COVID-19, Malacañang said Tuesday the Philippines simply cannot afford it.

While it would be good to test all Filipinos for COVID-19, Malacañang said Tuesday the Philippines simply cannot afford it.

Palace: Philippines can't afford to test all citizens for COVID-19

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Palace: Philippines can't afford to test all citizens for COVID-19

Arianne Merez,

ABS-CBN News

Published Jul 21, 2020 02:21 PM PHT

Read More:

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COVID-19 testing

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