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Iloilo's new COVID-19 testing lab gets backing of local academe

Philippines | Luzon

Iloilo's new COVID-19 testing lab gets backing of local academe

By Tara Yap

ILOILO CITY—Four major educational institutions in Iloilo played pivotal roles in establishing a hospital’s new testing laboratory for coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

The COVID-19 Testing Laboratory of the Metro Iloilo Hospital and Medical Center in Iloilo City. (UP Visayas / MANILA BULLETIN)

The University of the Philippines Visayas (UP Visayas), University of San Agustin (USA), West Visayas Statue University (WVSU), and Philippine Science High School (PSHS-Western Visayas Campus) partnered with the Philippine Genome Center- Visayas (PGC-Visayas) in establishing the newly-opened COVID-19 Testing Laboratory of the Metro Iloilo Hospital and Medical Center (MIHMC).

“The opening of the molecular laboratory is proof of the cohesive relationship and efforts among Iloilo’s best institutions in the fight against COVID-19,” said Anna Razel Ramirez, information officer of UP Visayas.

Ramirez told The Manila Bulletin on Monday, September 21, that the four academic institutions lent technical expertise alongside Dr. Noel Ferriols of PGC-Visayas to train doctors, pathologists and medical technologists in the newest COVID-19 laboratory that can serve the people of Panay and Guimaras Islands.

Ramirez said that PGC-Visayas team carried out the optimization procedures for the

reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) machine that will be used for diagnostics of COVID-19 specimens. The team also tested the proficiency of the GenAmplify RT-PCR kits, which was also developed by UP.

The backing of Iloilo’s academe enabled MIHMC in expediting the process that resulted to getting an accreditation from the Department of Health (DOH-6).

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