Duterte Warns of Arrests as the Philippines Plans to Increase Covid-19 Testing

MANILA, KOMPAS.com – On Tuesday, the Philippines announced that it would be ramping up Covid-19 testing to detect the deadly novel virus.

The government’s decision comes amid a sharp uptick in infections and deaths following the easing of lockdown restrictions in June.

The country’s President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to arrest citizens and residents who are not wearing a mask.

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The number of Covid-19 tests conducted in the Philippines range between 20,000 and 23,000 per day, according to Health Secretary Francisco Duque.

Duque shared the government’s plan to increase daily testing to 32,000 to 40,000 people.

He also stated that while the country has tested 1.1 million people for the Covid-19 virus so far, the government aims to test 10 million people by the second quarter of the year.

Should the country reach the 10-million mark, it would be testing a tenth of the country’s population.

"We cannot test every citizen as no country has done it even the richest, the United States," Duque said.

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