Philippines introduces more aggressive testing programme for Covid-19 despite having implemented some of Asia's strictest measures
Members of the Philippine Coast Guard outside a passenger vessel turned into a temporary quarantine facility for Filipino seafarers in Manila, Philippines, April 13, 2020.
Although the Philippines has Southeast Asia's highest number of coronavirus infections and nearly 40 percent of its known fatalities, the government believes its swift move to close borders and put half its population under home quarantine may have averted a far greater toll and a healthcare disaster.
The government has been criticised for being too slow with testing but it has accelerated since the start of April due to increases in test kits and laboratory capacity. President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday approved the procurement of an additional 900,000 kits on top of 100,000 now in use. Citing expert projections, Philippine Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said on Tuesday the local lockdown, which started five days after confirmation of the first domestic transmission on March 7, may have prevented between 1.9 and 8.3 million coronavirus infections.
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