In order to help mass testing efforts in the country, the Office of the Vice President Leni Robredo (OVP) purchased 10,000 units of COVID-19 test kits developed by scientists at the University of the Philippines. 

The purchase of the test kits, which include detection and extraction tools, totaled P14 million—sourced from the budget of the OVP. These will be delivered to testing centers certified by the Department of Health, such as San Lazaro Hospital, Lung Center of the Philippines, V. Luna Hospital, and Bicol Regional Diagnostic and Reference Laboratory.

The OVP also noted that Robredo met with microbiologist and infectious disease expert Dr. Raul Destura, who led the team from the University of the Philippines-National Institutes of Health and Philippine Genome Center in developing the test kits.

As of Friday, the country currently has 7,192 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 477 deaths and 762 recoveries.

Header photo courtesy of Office of the Vice President Leni Robredo

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