Bohol Island News | Posted on March 20, 2020
There will be 40,000 test kits for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) that are set to arrive within the week.
Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV) Secretary Michael Lloyd Dino revealed in a media briefing on Thursday evening in Cebu City that these kits are not only for Cebu but it will be for the entire Visayas.
“It will not just be for the Cebuanos but also for Region 6 and Region 8,” he told reporters.
Dino also revealed that it was the Cebu City Government who purchased 20,000 test kits.
The other 20,000 test kits was facilitated and purchased by OPAV with the help of Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go and President Rodrigo Duterte.
All these kits will be for the identified subnational laboratory in the Visayas which is the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC), located in Cebu City.
On Thursday, VSMMC and other three subnational laboratories in the Philippines became operational.
In a separate interview, Dr. Jaime Bernadas, regional director of the Department of Health Central Visayas Center for Health Development (DOH-CHD 7), said VSMMC is the sole accredited hospital in the Visayas to run the tests.
VSMMC, according to Bernadas, is equipped with the polymerase chain reaction machine to do the testing.
There is a private hospital in Cebu City that also has the same capability but it has to go through application and accreditation process before it can become operational.
As of Thursday (March 19), Dr. Gerardo Aquino, medical chief of VSMMC, said their pathologists has so far 60 specimens to be tested.
Initally, VSMMC received 100 test kits from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) to be used.
Previously, it takes at least a week for the results to be known since it has to be sent to RITM in Manila.
Now, it would only take 72 hours or 3 days to get the results, the DOH-CHD 7 director revealed.
Bernadas added samples from other areas in Visayas like Tacloban City and Iloilo have also arrived and are set for processing.
DOH-7 has agreed with the Philippine Air Force and Philippine Coast Guard to help them in transporting the said specimens.
