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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider DILG chief cites 21 LGUs operating COVID-19 test labs

DILG chief cites 21 LGUs operating COVID-19 test labs

Published Sep 26, 2020 12:36 pm

The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Saturday said that 21 Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) laboratories run by the local government units (LGUs) are now operational describing is a great factor in improving the country’s overall coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) testing capacity.

A health worker takes a nasal swab sample at a COVID-19 testing site at St. John's Well Child and Family Center, amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, July 24, 2020, in Los Angeles, California. - The coronavirus pandemic hit grim new milestones July 23, with cases topping four million in the United States and three million in Europe as fresh spikes from Belgium to Tokyo to Melbourne forced new restrictions on citizens. (Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP)
(Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP)

DILG Secretary Eduardo M. Año cited the development and praised the local chief executives (LCE) for “this significant achievement’’.

“Before we only had Marikina City as having its own LGU-run RT-PCR laboratory. Now we have 21 (LGUs) all over the country and more are on the pipeline. I’m proud of these LGUs for passing the stringent DOH licensing procedure,” Año said.

He noted that all of the laboratories passed the five-stage DOH criteria before it received its license to conduct testing.

In welcoming the development, Año said that the high COVID-19 transmission rate at the barangay level will be lessened with the high determining system that will ascertain who needs to be tested and isolated.

Out of the licensed LGU-run labs, 14 are in Luzon, three in the Visayas and four are in Mindanao with 20 more LGUs undergoing assessment by the DOH.  

There are currently 130 licensed COVID-19 testing laboratories, public and private, across the different regions of the country.

The DILG chief noted that the country can now conduct more than 30,000 tests a day, a significant development with only 400 tests conducted solely by the Research Institute for Topical Medicine (RITM) last March.

“This is a significant achievement and the LGUs are a big part of this,” he added.

DILG Undersecretary Jonathan E. Malaya said that the Philippines has conducted more unique tests of its population than any other Southeast Asian country. 

As of September 21, the Philippines has conducted a total of 3,400,019 tests. 

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