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MANILA, Philippines – The government set a new price cap for COVID-19 rapid antigen testing, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Tuesday, February 8.
The DOH shared its Department Circular No. 2021-0323-B, dated January 28, to reporters on Tuesday.
According to the memo, the price cap for antigen testing services has been lowered to P660 from P960. This already includes the operational cost of conducting the service. The diagnostic test kit alone has a price cap of P350.
Meanwhile, the government also set a price cap for self-administered test kits at P350. The DOH said this is “subject to regular review by the Technical Working Group.”
The Philippine Food and Drug Administration recently approved two self-administered COVID-19 antigen test kits from Abbott and Labnovation Technologies.
The DOH said the price caps will take effect on February 20.
The DOH has said that antigen tests are most useful for people who already have COVID-19 symptoms. An antigen test result that is positive is likely accurate in detecting COVID-19, but a negative test result often needs to be confirmed by an RT-PCR test.
Advocates and concerned citizens have been pushing the government to approve self-antigen test kits since the pandemic began. In other countries, governments have long issued home testing policies and have provided self-test kits to citizens for free.
– Rappler.com
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