A medical worker places a swab in a vial while testing for COVID-19 a homeless person in Miami, Florida. In the Philippines, particularly in Cebu Island in Central Visayas, the local government units here are gearing up for targeted mass testing to be implemented soon. | AP photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines – Central Visayas’ testing capacity for suspected coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) specimens has increased with the operation of a new testing facility here.
The Department of Health in the region (DOH – 7) announced on Friday, May 8, 2020, that Cebu’s Tb Reference Laboratory Molecular Facility has already started accepting samples for COVID-19 testing.
“DOH – Central Visayas has started the operations of Cebu Tb Reference Laboratory Molecular Facility for COVID-19 Testing (CTRL-MFCT) testing some of the specimens sent to the Regional Epidemiological Surveillance Unit (RESU),” the agency said in a press release.
DOH – 7 said that the laboratory, an expansion of the existing subnational laboratory (SNL) located at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC), released 44 test results on its first day of operation.
In a message sent to members of the media, DOH – 7 director Dr. Jaime Bernadas said the additional laboratory in Cebu can increase Central Visayas’ capacity to test up to 1, 000 samples per day.
“As soon as the second lab is fully functional with a bigger capacity machine compliment, which we have been waiting for care of OPAV (Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas), around 800-1000 specimens are anticipated and our capacity will also be at 1000/day when all is in place,” Bernadas added.
The SNL in VSMMC, on the other hand, is the country’s largest COVID-19 testing center outside Luzon. It can carry out a daily average of 400 tests.
Since it began operations last March, it already examined a total of 11,448 specimens as of May 8, 2020.
Of the 11,448 specimens, 10,502 or around 92 percent were taken from individuals residing in Central Visayas. VSMMC’s SNL also caters to specimens coming from Eastern Visayas and Northern Mindanao.
Central Visayas has a total of 1,610 confirmed COVID-19 patients as of May 8, making it the region outside the National Capital Region (NCR) with the highest number of cases. / dcb