The Philippines, with a population of more than 100 million, had only 2,000 novel coronavirus test kits available earlier this week as the number of infections jumped.
Its government once had 4,500 kits in stock, but the number dwindled to 2,000 by Monday as the number of people who wanted to be diagnosed surged, Philippine Department of Health Assistant Secretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said on Monday.
Confirmed cases in the nation had increased to 35 yesterday.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The limited number of testing kits is constraining the country’s ability to test more people for the virus, Philippine Department of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said on Monday, making people showing any symptoms a priority.
The shortage of diagnostic kits in the Philippines underscores resource constraints and rising costs that countries face as the virus spreads globally.
“Will we test 104 million Filipinos? That doesn’t seem to be the correct approach,” Duque said yesterday.
His comments came after Philippine Senator Nancy Binay criticized health officials at a congressional hearing on virus preparations for their seeming lack of readiness to deal with the outbreak.
“I don’t want to panic, but you’re making me panic,” she said.
On the brighter side, a testing kit developed by the University of the Philippines’ National Institutes of Health was accredited by the Philippine Food and Drug Administration on Monday.
There are 2,000 kits expected to arrive from the WHO this week, the health department said.
Elsewhere in the region, Singapore developed its own coronavirus diagnostic kit, according to a Facebook post from Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat (王瑞傑), and it is prepared to ship them to other countries.
The city-state said on Monday that it would stop funding treatments for short-term visitors, including tourists, while testing will remain free for everyone.
The announcement came as it reported new imported infections involving people who had traveled from Indonesia, which reported its first virus case earlier this month and officially has just 19 infections compared with 160 in Singapore.
The new measures came into effect on Saturday, when authorities said two symptomatic Indonesian travelers arrived in Singapore.
Both had reported COVID-19 symptoms in Indonesia before leaving and one had sought treatment at a hospital in Jakarta.
Another case involved a Singaporean who had visited her sister in Indonesia who had pneumonia.
The Singaporean Ministry of Health did not say whether its new stance on payment for treatment related to specific cases.
“In view of the rising number of COVID-19 infections globally, and the expected rise in the number of confirmed cases in Singapore, we will need to prioritize the resources at our public hospitals,” it said in a statement.
Of 33 imported cases reported by Singapore to date, 24 involve travel to China, three to Indonesia and the others to Italy, Britain, France and Germany.
Singapore has also determined that some of its local cases had travel history to Indonesia.
Additional reporting by Reuters
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of