Optimal Allocation of COVID-19 Test Kits Among Accredited Testing Centers in the Philippines

Christian Alvin H Buhat; Jessa Camille C Duero; Edd Francis O Felix; Jomar Fajardo Rabajante; Jonathan B Mamplata

The Department of Health (DOH) of the Philippines has already accredited 11 laboratories and hospitals (as of 12 April 2020) to conduct COVID-19 testing in the country. These centers have conducted a total of 38,640 tests (as of 11 April 2020) [12, 9] . With these, and several other laboratories awaiting accreditation, the Philippine government plans to start a massive testing program for COVID-19 on 14 April 2020 to fully assess the public health situation. Conducting mass testing will not only help in tracing the asymptomatic carriers who need isolation, it will also protect the healthcare workers who are exposed to this contagious disease [10] . Even though DOH will increase its capacity for testing, resources such as testing kits are still insufficient to efficiently test the whole susceptible population in the Philippines [5, 13] . Thus, it is necessary to find an optimal strategy of distributing the available test kits among the accredited testing centers such that each individual estimated to be infected has an equitable chance of being tested.