CEBU CITY, Philippines — Ten medical personnel from the Department of Health (DOH) in Eastern Visayas underwent a 3-day COVID-19 proficiency training at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) and DOH-7 COVID Laboratory.
The training was conducted in preparation for a molecular laboratory that has been set up at the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC) in Tacloban City.
The said laboratory is still awaiting accreditation by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, according to a press release from the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV).
The said office facilitated the training of the 10 medical personnel composed of a Pathologist and nine Medical Technologists last May 3.
OPAV organized their trip from Ormoc City to Mandaue City as well as arranged for their accommodation and transport for the duration of their training in Cebu City.
The DOH 8 COVID-19 Testing Team, headed by Dr. Kae Parilla, returned to Tacloban City on May 6 after it completed the COVID-19 proficiency training.
The molecular laboratory in Region 8 has been set up in the old EVRMC and has passed Stage 2 of the validation stage in the laboratory accreditation steps of the RITM.
The third stage involved the COVID-19 Proficiency Training of the molecular laboratory personnel.
The team will be undertaking the COVID19 Proficiency Panel (Stage 4) once they return to EVRMC.
Once they pass the Proficiency Panel, they will then be granted full accreditation by RITM so they could perform independent COVID-19 testing and provide official results.
In order to augment the testing capacity of the EVRMC COVID laboratory, the Cristina Lee Dino Foundation through OPAV donated a Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RTPCR) machine; a desktop computer set; and additional 1,000 NPS/OPS swab kits.
The PCR testing of samples from Region 8 is currently being done at VSMMC but once EVRMC is granted Stage 5 accreditation by RITM, it will be running its own PCR testing for the entire region.
Meanwhile, OPAV thanked President Rodrigo Duterte and Senator Bong Go for their continued support in the fight of Visayans in this COVID pandemic./rcg