MANILA — The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) remains the leading COVID-19 tester in the country with over 3 million swab and saliva tests performed since April 14, 2020.
PRC chairman Senator Richard Gordon noted that the humanitarian organization accounts for 40 percent of testing output nationwide.
“If we did not go into testing, 250,000 COVID-19 positive cases would have gone undetected and unknowingly spread the virus,” he said in a statement.
In a data sent to INQUIRER.net, the PRC remains the biggest COVID-19 tester in the country with 3,010,432 total tests nationwide as of Sunday. At far second is Detoxicare Molecular Diagnostics with 757,253, while state-run Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) ranks third with 500,540 tests.
Currently, the humanitarian organization runs its 13 molecular laboratories located in Mandaluyong City, Port Area Manila, Subic Bay Freeport Zone, Clark Freeport Zone, Batangas, Isabela, Cebu, Bacolod, Zamboanga, Cagayan de Oro, Surigao, and Passi City in Iloilo.
“The country’s battle against COVID-19 is far from over, and the Red Cross will continue to improve and innovate to reinforce our defense against the virus,” Gordon said. (©Philippine Daily Inquirer 2021)
