BY JUN AGUIRRE AND BOY RYAN ZABAL
KALIBO, Aklan – Although this province is now free from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) after all its seven infected residents have fully recovered, Gov. Florencio Miraflores said they will still enforce strict measures.
“All of our seven confirmed cases have recovered. Recently, a Taiwanese resident in Boracay Island in Malay town showed symptoms of COVID-19, but he came out negative after being tested,” said Miraflores during a press conference via Zoom last week.
All of the seven confirmed cases in this province travelled from Metro Manila, the governor added.
There are also no suspect cases and local transmission of COVID-19 in Aklan, data from the Provincial Health Office showed.
Miraflores assured suspected and probable patients who will be found out positive for the virus will be immediately given necessary interventions.
The following are Aklan’s confirmed cases that have fully recovered.
Here’s a brief description of the seven COVID-19 survivors in this province
* A 37-year-old doctor from Malay town
* A 40-year-old seaman from this capital town
* A 66-year-old retired government employee from this capital town
* A 68-year-old man from this Capital town
* An 81-year-old man from Libacao town
* A 44-year-old resident of Altavas town but works in Roxas City, Capiz
* A 30-year-old overseas Filipino worker from Banga town
Meanwhile, the provincial government of Aklan is pursuing the accreditation process of the Dr. Rafael S. Tumbokon Memorial Hospital (DRSTMH) as a testing laboratory for COVID-19.
The accreditation and assessment of DRSTMH as testing center is being fast-tracked by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) and the Department of Health (DOH).
DRSTMH also needs to comply with the DOH-RITM’s biosafety principles which include biosafety Level 2 facility, laboratory technologists trained for biosafety and transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) procedures and a well-established protocol on the quality assurance of test results to avoid laboratory-acquired infections and inaccuracies.
Provincial Health Officer I Dr. Cornelio Cuachon Jr. said the provincial government here will put up a molecular diagnostics laboratory inside the compound of DRSTMH and will be managed by medical technologists, encoders and administrative staff.
There is a DOH-licensed COVID-19 testing center in Iloilo City, the Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC) in Mandurriao district. It is where this province and the rest of Region 6 send the swab samples of their residents while waiting for the accreditation of their own respective centers.
This province recently acquired a new PCR machine to boost testing capacity for the virus and reduce backlog at the WVMC.
Miraflores said the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) machine will hasten the capabilities of testing laboratories to detect severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 which causes COVID-19. RT-PCR tests detect the actual presence of the virus with a turnaround time of 24 to 48 hours.(With a report from Akean Forum/PN)
