The Department of Health (DOH)  daily testing capacity for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) remains less than 10,000 samples.

In a virtual press conference, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said  actual testing by  49 accredited laboratories across the country is between 8,000 to 9,000 daily.

“Our current laboratory testing capacity is averaging 8,000 to 9,000,” said Vergeire.

“When it comes to the actual testing capacity, we haven’t reached our target,” she added.

The DOH had hoped to do 30,000 COVID-19 tests daily by the end of May.

Vergeire said the DOH’s inability to meet the testing target to different operational issues of laboratories, including problems in the supply chain.

“Our (laboratory) supplies are still erratic. We need to redistribute every now and then. Hopefully, we can address these operational problems in the coming days,” she said.

“We really are having this challenge with our supplies in our laboratories,” added Vergeire.

Vergeire cited other factors, such as personnel resigning or having to go under quarantine.

“There are really different operational issues that we encouter. These unforeseen events,” said Vergeire.

Vergeire said their backlogs in testing have swollen to over 1,000 again after bringing these to around 500 last weekend.

“We have a total of 1,691 backlogs as of 6 pm yesterday (Monday),” said Vergeire. DMS