Marje Pelayo • March 30, 2020 • 884

MANILA, Philippines – Thousands of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) test kits from a number of countries have arrived in the Philippines specifically from China, Singapore, South Korea and India.

The latest to arrive were 40,000 test kits from Singapore which arrived Sunday evening (March 29).

The Department of Health (DOH) assured all COVID-19 test kit donations are screened and tested for accuracy before they are used for public testing.

“Nagsasagawa po ang RITM ng parallel testing ng mga tests kits natin gamit po ang protocol ng World Health Organization, (The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine has been doing parallel testing on the kits following protocols set by the World Health Organization) ” explained DOH Spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire.

Vergeire said donated test kits and those provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) both undergo tests using similar samples or specimen.

The DOH only recommends public use if both kits yield parallel results.



Through this process, the DOH discovered that some test kits yielded poor accuracy rate.

During a press conference, Vergeire mentioned that the first batch of test kits from China yielded only 40% accuracy and therefore did not allow its use.

In response, Beijing through its embassy in Manila clarified that the test kits passed the standards.

The Embassy said it immediately checked with DOH which clarified that the two batches of 2,000 BGI PCR-type test kits and 100,000 Sansure PCR-type test kits donated by the Chinese government have been assessed by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) to be at par with the World Health Organization provided kits.

“And those test kits are of high quality and standards and have no accuracy problems,” the China Embassy in Manila said in a statement.

“At this moment of crisis, we should fight in solidarity to overcome the epidemic at the earliest date. The Chinese Embassy firmly rejects any irresponsible remarks and any attempts to undermine our cooperation in this regard,” it added.

In a follow up statement, the DOH clarified that the faulty test kits referred to by Usec. Vergeire of having poor accuracy rate was a different brand of test kits “that was proposed to be donated by a private foundation.”

Those test kits were already discarded, the DOH said.

“The DOH apologizes for any confusion that previously issued statements have caused,” the Health Department said.

Meanwhile, the DOH said it is expecting more positive cases of COVID-19 with the arrival of additional test kits from donor countries.

Vergeire stressed that the DOH is not just doing a random testing to identify COVID-19 positive individuals.

“Sa pamamagitan ng contact tracing, aktibo po nating hinahanap ang mga posibleng na infect ng COVID-19, (Through contact tracing we are actively identifying all individuals who might have been infected by COVID-19)” the official said.

“Dahil dito asahan po ninyo na tataas pa ang bilang ng mga confirmed cases sa mga susunod na araw. Mainam na rin po na ating nalalaman kung ilan at sino pa ang nagpositibo para sila po ay mabigyan agad ng tamang pag-aalaga (Because of this, expect the rise in number of confirmed cases in the coming days. It is better that we are able identify them and to know the number to immediately provide them proper care),” she added.

At present, all four national testing laboratories across the country are doing 80 to 160 tests a day on top of the 900 to 1,000 tests a day being done by RITM in Manila. MNP (with details from Aiko Miguel)