Malacañang admits no COVID mass testing, but expanded targeted testing

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque clarified that the proper term for government efforts to test COVID-19 is not mass testing, but expanded targeted testing.

“Ang tawag po dapat ay ‘expanded targeted testing’. Wala pong bansa sa mundo na tini-test ang lahat ng kanilang mga mamamayan. Kaya nga po mali ang terminong ‘mass testing’ (The term should be expanded targeted testing. No country in the world tested all of their citizens. The term mass testing is wrong),” Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said.

Roque’s statement is a response to criticisms of his previous statement that the government has limited capacity to conduct mass testing for COVID-19 and will leave employee testing to the private sector.  

Roque said the government welcomes private sector involvement in the conduct of tests for workers.

“Hindi rin po pinababayaan ng pamahalaan ang expanded testing sa pribadong sektor. Partner po natin ang pribadong sektor sa bagay na ito (The government does not fully leave expanded testing to the private sector. The private sector is still a partner in this),” he said.

Under the expanded targeted testing scheme, the government will limit the testing of COVID-19 to persons with symptoms of coronavirus infection and those with a history of travel to corona-hit countries.

Roque said persons with close contact to COVID-19 patients are also covered under the expanded targeted testing along with those who tested positive in the antibody tests.

Roque added that the government is also working on reaching the global benchmark, which is testing one to two percent of the whole population of the Philippines, or even up to 10 percent in Metro Manila.