Galvez assures testing center to be put up in Zamboanga City soon
By Nonoy Lacson
ZAMBOANGA CITY – National Inter-agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (NIATF-EID) Chief Implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. assured Zamboanguenos that a testing center will be fully operational in the city soon.
This was the assurance he gave Saturday, May 2, during a conference held at the conference room of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) here, which was attended by local officials, led by City Mayor Ma. Isabelle Climaco-Salazar.
“We will work for the testing center of Zamboanga City to be fully operational. Don’t worry with the expenses for the test kits, NIATF and RITM (Research Institute for Tropical Medicine) will provide them,” Galvez said.
The NIATF team also visited the COVID-19 treatment facility at the Zamboanga City Medical Center (ZCMC) and inspected the proposed location of the COVID-19 testing laboratory in the city.
For his part, Armed Forces of the Philippines-Western Mindanao Command (AFP-WestMinCom) Commander Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana said: “We should not relax in as far as the implementation of our quarantine is concerned.”
“We really need to continuously converge our efforts, support each other, and educate down the line. We must have very effective information operations because people in the countryside should understand the effect of the pandemic,” Sobejana added.
Present during the conference were CDRRMO Officer Dr. Elmeir Apolinario, City Health Officer Dr. Dulce Amor Miravite, Assistant Secretary Wilben Mayor, Presidential Adviser for Flagship Programs and Projects Vince Dizon, and Government Security Insurance System (GSIS) President Rolando Macasaet.
