The Department of Health on Monday urged laboratories to remain open amid the holiday season for the government to be able to tally an accurate number of COVID-19 cases in the country.
DOH says no expired COVID-19 test kits were released inquirer.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from inquirer.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
(JANSEN ROMERO / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
The department made the statement after reports of alleged distribution of expired RT-PCR test kits by the RITM to Baguio City.
“The DoH emphasizes that unlike medicines which have a shelf life of three to five years, testing kits have a significantly shorter shelf life of six months from the date of manufacturing,” the department said.
The DoH underscored that test kits are fast-moving stock that have to be utilized immediately, considering that shipment and other laboratory processes already take up part of their already short shelf life.
It added that the machine compatibility, technical issues, low testing referral count, and availability of supplies also contribute to low consumption of the COVID-19 test kits, which, in turn, increase likelihood of expiry before use.
SunStar Duterte extends UK travel ban, okays other measures to block new virus variant
ENGLAND. In this photo taken in June 2020, passengers wearing face masks arrive at London s Heathrow Airport. (File)
+ December 27, 2020 (UPDATED) President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday, December 26, 2020, approved the recommendation to extend for two weeks the temporary ban on inbound flights from the United Kingdom (UK) in a bid to block the new Sars-CoV-2 variant.
The President also approved the strict implementation of mandatory 14-day quarantine regardless of RT-PCR test results for all passengers coming from countries with confirmed cases of the new virus variant such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, South Africa and Japan.
COVID-19 bed capacity: 8 of 144 NCR hospitals under critical level — DOH inquirer.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from inquirer.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.