Philippines to ramp up coronavirus testing as Duterte warns of arrests

MANILA, July 21 (Reuters) - The Philippines said on Tuesday
it would ramp up testing for the novel coronavirus amid a sharp
rise in infections and deaths since a lockdown was eased in
June, while President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to arrest
anyone not wearing a mask.
The government aimed to test 32,000 to 40,000 people a day
compared with the current 20,000 to 23,000, Health Secretary
Francisco Duque said in a televised meeeting with Duterte.
The Philippines has tested nearly 1.1 million people so far,
but Duque said the aim was for 10 million people - or nearly a
tenth of the population - to be tested by the second quarter of
next year.
"We cannot test every citizen as no country has done it even
the richest, the United States," Duque said.
In Southeast Asia, the Philippines ranks second to Indonesia
in terms of the number of infections and deaths, with cases
jumping nearly four-fold to 68,898 and deaths nearly doubling to
1,835 since the government relaxed lockdown measures in June.
Lockdowns have been reimposed in some of the hardest-hit
areas. Of 30 countries most impacted by the pandemic, the
Philippines ranked 24th in terms of testing rate, data from
statistics aggregator Statista showed.
Duterte threatened to arrest anyone who spread the virus,
refused to wear masks or keep a safe distance from others. The
tough-talking president warned in April that violators of
lockdown rules could be shot for causing trouble. "We do not have any qualms in arresting people," Duterte
said in a recorded address aired on Tuesday. It was a "serious
crime" to spread the COVID-19 respiratory disease, he added.
"If you are brought to the police station and detained
there, that would give you a lesson for all time," he said of
anyone caught not wearing a mask.
Last week, officials said health workers and police would
take patients with mild or no symptoms from their homes and
place them in isolation centres, raising concerns about possible
human rights violations.