The Department of Health has approved the “remote” collection of COVID-19 test samples from patients’ homes.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in an interview with news program Unang Hirit that accredited labs need to follow the government’s regulations when they pick-up specimens, such as donning personal protective equipment (PPE).
“This remote collection has to be coming from a licensed laboratory also. It’s like their extension and they can provide home service but we have conditions or requirements,” she said in English and Filipino.
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“The process has to be of quality, same with [what we do] in the laboratory. They should be wearing PPEs and they should be notifying the Department of Health when they are going to offer this kind of service so that we can monitor them. We have already monitored some laboratories and we are advising them [on how this should be done],” she added.
The Philippines has the most number of COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia, with 228,403 cases recorded as of yesterday, including 159,475 recoveries and 3,688 dead.
