In a pandemic caused by a highly contagious virus such as COVID-19, laboratory capacities for testing in any country is very crucial in order to immediately identify and isolate confirmed cases to facilitate early interruption of transmission.
Since the outbreak was declared in the Philippines, the World Health Organization (WHO) country office, with support from a grant from ECHO has worked closely with both the Department of Health (DOH) and local governments to ensure establishment and accreditation of testing laboratories across the regions.
The European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) has been funding WHO in the inspection and assessment of laboratory capacities for testing COVID-19 samples.