The Office of the Vice President (OVP), spearheaded by VP Leni Robredo is set to purchase locally-developed test kits for the new coronavirus to enable mass testing in the country. This is in response to the scarcity of testing kits that continue to debilitate the country from conducting mass testing.
The OVP has just provided protective gear and other essential equipment to frontliners and now Robredo’s office allocates P 14 million of its current budget for 2020 to procure the test kits that have been developed by the scientists from the University of the Philippines-National Institutes of Health.
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The said test kits developed by local scientists can accommodate up to 120,000 tests. Of the number, a number of priority test kits equal to 26,000 will be given to DOST for effective distribution to various public and private hospitals. The remainder 94,000 test kits will be sold at P 1,300 per test kit, which is cheaper than the foreign counterparts which cost around P 8,500 each.
Robredo said on her radio show, BISErbisyong Leni, “Iyong na develop na test kits ay ready na for distribution. Nakapila na kami. Uunahin lang ang DOST. Kami na iyong susunod,” The Vice President said that this is good news for the country amid the scarcity in the number of test kits nationwide. She believes that this is a good move for the country since mass testing is already implemented in other countries to battle COVID-19.
Robredo said in a Facebook post, “It is definitely a step in the right direction.”
She added that her office is hoping that the test kits will be readily available for distribution within this week and that they are already in close collaboration with the Department of Health and Research Institute for Tropical Medicine.
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