Philippines eyes wider coronavirus asymptomatic testing

The health department aims to expand its coronavirus testing to cover more asymptomatic individuals to contain the pandemic as the Philippines relaxes its lockdown measures, an official said Thursday. 

"The economy is getting to be open right now... and a lot of people are moving around and that increases the possibility of the transmission of the virus. We are trying to do a balance in terms of safeguarding the health of the community," said Health Undersecretary Leopold Vega. 

"We are trying do expand the testing guidelines so that more, not just symptomatics are getting to be tested, but also the asymptomatic. This is the only way that we will be able to isolate, contact-trace and treat patients," he told ANC. 

Some 800,000 people have been screened for the novel coronavirus so far, the health department said Tuesday, almost 4 months into varying degrees of lockdowns to contain the pandemic. 
 
The agency on Wednesday confirmed a record-high spike in COVID-19 cases that brought the total to 50,359. 

ANC, July 9, 2020