The Department of Health (DOH) on Monday lauded the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) for having tested a total of 254,846 samples corresponding to 214,209 unique individuals as of September 11.

“As of September 11, 2020, the country has conducted a total of 3,040,790 tests on 2,859,987 unique individuals, and has recorded an average daily testing capacity of 36,857 within the last seven days. The RITM contributes 8.46 percent of this testing capacity,” DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a virtual media forum.

According to the latest DOH data, the RITM has conducted an average of 1,803 samples per day in the past seven days.

Citing that the RITM continues to support the government’s efforts to increase its Covid-19 testing capacity, Vergeire said the institute also capacitates other laboratories so they can become licensed Covid-19 testing laboratories.

“Sila rin po ang nagba-validate ng testing methodologies na bago dito sa ating bansa at meron din silang ginagawa na ibang (They also validate testing methodologies that are new in our country and they also do other) tasks for the country pertaining to other diseases,” she said.

With the RITM’s achievement, Vergeire said the “Philippines now boasts the highest testing capacity among the countries in the Southeast Asian region, even topping richer neighboring countries such as Japan and Singapore”. (PNA)