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Iloilo province helps boost Panay's COVID-19 testing capacity

Philippines | Luzon

Iloilo province helps boost Panay's COVID-19 testing capacity

By Tara Yap

ILOILO CITY—The Iloilo provincial government is helping boost diagnostic testing for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Panay Island by temporarily lending it real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) machine to the Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC).

The laboratory for COVID-19 testing at Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC), the hospital managed by the Department of Health (DOH) in Iloilo City. (Photo courtesy of Key Love Celis / MANILA BULLETIN)

Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. said its newly acquired RT-PCR machine was going to be used by WVMC Sub-National Laboratory (SNL), a Department of Health (DOH) hospital in Iloilo City.

Defensor explained that RT-PCR machine was intended for the COVID-19 laboratory at the Iloilo Provincial Hospital in Pototan town. But the laboratory was still under construction.

“For the meantime, we will put it at WVMC,” Defensor said, while adding that the provincial government’s laboratory technicians will also undergo training at WVMC.

The RT-PCR machine is expected to boost capacity of WVMC-SNL, which reported that it was having a hard time coping with the volume of COVID-19 specimens it has been receiving.

Dr. Stephanie Abello, chief pathologist of WVMC-SNL, earlier said there were around 3,000 specimens that need to be tested.

The WVMC-SNL is the only laboratory that tests COVID-19 specimens for Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Guimaras, and Iloilo provinces, as well as Iloilo City.

The WVMC-SNL also previously tested COVID-19 specimens for Negros Occidental and Bacolod City, but a COVID-19 laboratory has since opened there.

Meanwhile, the DOH announced that Qualimed Hospital in Iloilo City will soon operate its own COVID-19 testing laboratory after being granted a license by the DOH.

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