ILOILO City – The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) testing capability of Western Visayas will be strengthened once all its target laboratory centers begin to operate in the next two to three months.
“When we look at the applications so far, and if they will be realized, we will have about 14 laboratories running in the next two to three months,” said Dr. Marlyn Convocar, director of Department of Health-Center for Health Development Western Visayas during Monday’s episode of “Mugstoria Ta” program.
“Mugstoria Ta,” which airs on Facebook, is hosted by Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas assistant secretary Jonji Gonzales.
According to Convocar, two COVID-19 laboratory centers are already operating in this region. They are located at the Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC) in this city’s Mandurriao district which opened last March 25 and the Teresita Jalandoni Provincial Hospital in Silay City, Negros Occidental which started operations last June 2.
The WVMC, she said, can process 150 to 300 specimens a day while the laboratory in Silay City initially started with 20 sample specimens.
So far, WVMC has conducted close to 14,240 tests.
There are currently five proposed laboratories in this region that are on Stage 3 of certification from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), while the application from three provincial hospitals is pending.
Stage 3 of the accreditation process means that the personnel who will operate the laboratory will have to undergo a special three-day training at the RITM.
There are also private hospitals that are interested in getting accredited as sub-national laboratory.
Convocar said that if each laboratory can test 500 specimens a day, all 14 laboratories in this region can test 7,000 specimens daily.
COVID-19 cases in this region already surged three times, according to Convocar. First was in the early part of March due to imported cases coming from high-risk areas, second was the later part of March due to contact tracing of imported cases and third was during the arrival of repatriates.(With a report from PNA/PN)
