By Fernan Angeles
THE government has so far administered COVID-19 tests to some two million Filipinos, said the Department of Health.
Of this figure, 214,444 yielded positive results, equating to a whopping 10.5 positivity rate.
The testing is part of the government’s expanded testing measures deemed as crucial in containing the deadly virus.
The online tracker of the DOH showed that 2,051,983 individuals had been tested by 109 licensed laboratories as of August 19.
Testing czar Vince Dizon earlier vowed that the number of Filipinos tested for COVID-19 would hit 2 million by August.
“Halos 1.4 milyon na po ang na-test natin, at kampante po tayo na hihigit sa dalawang milyon ang mate-test sa buwan ng Agosto,” Dizon earlier said.
Figures collated by Our World in Data, an England-based data and research platform, also showed that the Philippines tested the highest number of people among the ASEAN-5 as of August 19.
On the same day, Malaysia logged 1.14 million individuals tested, followed by Indonesia with 1.10 million and Thailand with over 399,000. Singapore’s testing data was unavailable.
The National Task Force Against COVID-19 earlier said that the Philippines conducted more tests than six other Asian nations in July.
The government’s ramped up its COVID-19 testing also got to identify more positive cases. Out of the two million Filipinos who were tested, 214,444 were found positive for COVID-19, yielding a positivity rate of 10.5 percent—double the World Health Organization’s benchmark of 5 percent or lower.
The Philippines has so far recorded 178,022 confirmed cases, still the highest across Southeast Asia.
The DOH earlier explained that the total number of COVID-19-positive individuals does not equate to the official number of confirmed cases.
“The DOH is continuously validating the number of positive individuals as reported by laboratories. As such, the discrepancy with the number of confirmed cases do not necessarily reflect backlogs in case validation,” it said.
The department earlier conceded that the unrelenting surge of infections is no longer being driven by the country’s increased testing capacity but by the clustering of cases and community transmission.