San Juan opens new testing facility

The San Juan City government has chosen the San Juan Gym as new testing facility in lieu of the Mega Swabbing Facility in Palacio de Maynila.  This is to bring the testing facility closer to the people for faster and better access. 

Zamora inspected the new facility on Wednesday (August 19) where 500 frontliners, close contacts of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) positive patients and residents experiencing COVID-19 symptoms were tested.

The mayor said this is on top of the community testing that the City Health Office (CHO) conducts at an average of 120 per day.

Zamora said that last August 8, the Inter Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) announced its plan to devolve its mega swabbing initiatives to the local government.

San Juan already received test kits from the national government.

Zamora said the CHO and the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) medical employees will do the  swabbing while employees from other offices in the city will do the encoding.  The specimen will then be sent to a molecular lab for analysis.

The mayor said those who will test positive will immediately be isolated and undergo a thorough investigation by the city’s newly-trained contact tracers. 

Zamora said contact tracing will allow a more targeted mass testing on individuals who have a high probability of getting infected after they were exposed to positive patients.