The business community is supporting the government's move to use five brands of Covid-19 coronavirus rapid test kits from Singapore and China in the campaign against the deadly disease.
The rapid test kits approved by the Food and Drug Administration were Nanjing Vazyme 2019-nCoV manufactured by Biolidics Limited of Singapore; Novel Coronavirus Antibody Detection Kit manufactured by Nanjing Vazyme Medical Technology Co. Ltd.; Diagnostic Kit for Antibody to Coronavirus manufactured by Zhuhai Livzon Diagnostic Inc. of China; 2019 nCoV Antibody Test manufactured by Innovita Biological Technology Co. Ltd., and SARS-CoV2 Antibody Test manufactured by Guangzho Wondfo Biotech Co. Ltd.
Health officials earlier urged local government units, private groups and hospitals to secure their rapid testing kits only from authorized distributors of the approved brands.
One of the approved brands is being manufactured in Singapore, while the other four brands are manufactured in China.
Hero Pass Limited, a Covid-19 solutions provider, is the authorized distributor of the four brands from China: Wondfo, Vazyme, Zhuhai Livzon, and Innovita.
Presidential Adviser on Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion said business leaders and heads of chambers believe the deployment of rapid testing kits is crucial in determining who has been infected or not in the quickest time to help save lives and give a clearer picture of the enemy and how to stop it.
“By ensuring continued testing and the gathering of more data, the government can develop a more strategic and comprehensive mitigation plan,” Concepcion said.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque earlier directed the FDA and the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine to validate the products for Covid-19 rapid testing since last week to ensure that only the best technologies will be used for Filipinos in the war versus Covid-19.
“(FDA) Director General Eric Domingo assured me that they have been examining the rapid test kits submitted to us since last week,” said Duque.
Rapid test kits are currently in use in China, Singapore, South Korea, United Kingdom, United States, Taiwan, Europe and other countries in combatting the dreaded virus. Duque said after much discussion and consultation it was deemed by the
DOH that rapid testing may complement the RT-PRC (real time-polymerase chain reaction) method in tracking the invisible enemy. Experts hold that rapid Covid-19 testing can save the lives of the frontliners and can best be deployed in barangays and communities, because only with the actual numbers of those infected and deaths may the national leadership assess with accuracy the situation on the ground to guide in decisions that affect the entire population.