Government officials led by Health Secretary Francisco Duque III and Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Wednesday inspected the Enderun Tent in Taguig City, which will start operating this week as a swabbing facility.
They were joined by Interior Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año, National Task Force Against COVID-19 Chief Implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez, Jr., Deputy Chief Implementer Vince Dizon, Taguig City Mayor Lino Cayetano, and Office of Civil Defense Executive Director and Administrator Usec. Ricardo Jalad.
"This facility will add to our capacity to test first iyong mga OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) dito sa Metro Manila para madala na natin sila sa kanilang mga probinsya," Lorenzana said.
The Enderun Tent, to be manned by the Armed Forces of the Philippine Medical Corps, has 54 testing booths and has a capacity to run up to 1,500 tests daily once fully operational.
The facility was set up in collaboration with the Ayala Group, the Razon Group, and the Udenna Group.
"The infrastructure for massive testing is aggressively being pursued. We're putting together the human resource that's going to operate the swabbing tools," Duque remarked explaining how the Philippine government is responding to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Secretary Galvez meanwhile cited the increase of COVID-19 testing laboratories as part of government's "trace, test, and treat" program to reduce the community spread of the disease.
"Nagsimula tayo na tatlo lang ang ating laboratories. We're very thankful to DOH na 22 [laboratories] na po tayo ngayon," Galvez said.
The government plans to have a total of 78 laboratories, and 30,000 daily testing capacity by end of May.
For his part, Secretary Dizon highlighted the government's current system in flattening the curve of COVID-19 cases in the country. This include isolating the patients and suspected cases into the We Heal As One Centers, and the implementation of massive testing by prioritizing health infrastructures.
"The key is ramping up testing capacity but also speeding up the turnaround time. The more we are able to make the system more efficient, the better. These facilities will be here until the new normal. The important thing is the infrastructure is in place," Dizon said.
"Napakalaking bagay ng ginagawa ng national government. It's really an all-of-government approach 'yong ginawa nilang isolation centers and now they're also helping us build and capacitate 'yong testing centers," Mayor Cayetano added.
The other mega swabbing centers are the Palacio de Maynila in Roxas Boulevard, Mall of Asia arena in Pasay City, and the Philippine Sports Stadium inside the Philippine Arena in Bulacan.