MANILA, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) said on Tuesday that it will resume COVID-19 tests "in full" starting on Wednesday after the Philippine insurance company, PhilHealth, settled half of its debt to the organization.

"We will test right away. Tonight, I have requested the (PRC) secretary-general and all our laboratories in the entire country to open it to PhilHealth again," Senator Richard Gordon told reporters in an online interview.

Gordon also serves as chair of the PRC.

"We are going to (conduct) testing tonight from the Manila International Airport, and tomorrow, regular testing will be conducted in full. So we are ready to test all the people that we have not tested," Gordon added.

Gordon announced the resumption hours after PhilHealth made a partial payment of 500 million pesos (10.3 million U.S. dollars) to the PRC.

The PRC has been conducting COVID-19 tests to help the government screen the returning overseas Filipino workers.

But it has temporarily suspended testing after PhilHealth was not able to immediately settle its debt to the organization which reached over 1 billion pesos (20.6 million U.S. dollars).

The PRC conducts 30 percent of the total COVID-19 tests performed nationwide.

Data from the Department of Health of the Philippines showed the PRC had accounted for over 1 million of the 4.3 million tests conducted in the Philippines as of Oct. 18.

The Philippines now has 373,144 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 328,602 recoveries and 7,053 deaths. Enditem

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