ILOILO City – The Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC) in Mandurriao district has temporarily shut down its integrated laboratory and sub-national laboratory for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) testing.
Four of its medical technologists tested positive for COVID-19, the Department of Health (DOH) Region 6 announced yesterday.
The laboratories would be decontaminated.
“WVMC is not receiving specimens for today,” a WVMC advisory read yesterday.
The shutdown is not expected to cripple COVID-19 testing in Western Visayas. The region has five other laboratories licensed to conduct reverse transcription – polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing for COVID-19. These were the following:
* Qualimed Hospital molecular laboratory in Iloilo City
* Teresita L. Jalandoni Provincial Hospital molecular laboratory in Silay City, Negros Occidental
* Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital molecular laboratory in Bacolod City
* Bacolod Queen of Mercy Hospital – Molecular Laboratory
* The Doctors Hospital, Inc. – Molecular Laboratory in Bacolod City
The WVMC management said its laboratories would reopen after the decontamination process but gave no specific date.
As to the COVID-19-positive medical technologists, DOH Region 6 spokesperson Dr. Jocelyn Te said contact tracing was immediately launched.
Iloilo City’s Mayor Jerry Treñas, on the other hand, offered to WVMC the services of the city government’s trained medical technologists.
Local government units (LGUs) in Western Visayas have been urged to set up test laboratories for COVID-19. They would help expand testing, a key strategy to curb the disease’s spread, said Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., chief implementer of the national government’s policy on COVID-19, during a recent visit here.
“For example sa province dapat mayroon sila at sa city. Mga highly-urbanized cities dapat may kanilang sariling laboratories,” Galvez said.
For Region 6, said Galvez, the goal is to increase the testing capacity to 4,000 daily.
The WVMC sub-national laboratory alone could not do this, he stressed.
Galvez said LGUs’ setting up more testing laboratories is in line with a new government strategy to combat the pandemic – enhance contact tracing of people whom COVID-19-positive cases may have infected./PN
