OVP to launch funding program for antigen tests —VP Robredo

The Office of the Vice President, with the Malabon City government, will launch a fund program for antigen tests, Vice President Leni Robredo announced on Saturday.

In a Facebook post, Robredo said the "Swab Cab project" seeks to augment the testing capacity of local government units.

“Gamit ang antigen test kits, magsasagawa tayo ng community-based surveillance testing bilang suporta sa mga RT-PCR tests na kasalukuyan nang ginagawa upang mapabilis ang pagtukoy sa mga posibleng kaso ng COVID-19,” Robredo said.

[Using antigen test kits, we will do community-based surveillance testing to back up RT-PCR tests, which are currently being conducted to speed up the identification of possible cases.]

Malabon City will serve as the pilot area for the project, the Vice President said.

In an earlier interview, the VP said that some local governments' seeming lack of appreciation for antigen test confuses her, as they rely solely on RT-PCR.

“Pero iyon nga iyong problema natin eh, ‘di ba? Na ang tine-test lang natin ay iyong may symptoms. Alam naman natin from the percentages na yung larger population nga asymptomatic" (That’s our problem, right? We are only testing those with symptoms. But we know from the percentages that a large number are asymptomatic), she said.

She added that her group will conduct the antigen testing on Tuesday, and the RT-PCR on Wednesday –and alternately in succeeding days.

As part of efforts to curb the spread of the COVID-19, Malacañang said Saturday that the Philippines is looking to test residents with antigen test kits during house-to-house visitations. —LBG, GMA News