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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider Bacolod to release P20 million for COVID-19 test lab

Bacolod to release P20 million for COVID-19 test lab

Published Apr 5, 2020 12:00 am
By Glazyl Masculino BACOLOD CITY - The city government of Bacolod will provide the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH) with ₱20 million to build a biolab that will test for infection of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Mayor Evelio Leonardia said that the facility will cater to patients from Bacolod and Negros Occidental. Leonardia made the decision after he learned from Dr. Stephanie Abello, chief pathologist of the Department of Health (DOH) biolab at the Western Visayas Medical Center in Iloilo City, that the facility will only be able to process about 100 specimens during a 12-hour shift. “Even if that is doubled, the Iloilo biolab can, therefore, handle only about 200 specimens in a day. If that Iloilo biolab is to serve the entire Western Visayas, then that capacity is sorely inadequate”, the mayor said. Considering the dire need for this facility, he felt that he could no longer wait for the response of DOH-Manila to his previous appeal that DOH also build a biolab here just like what it did in the cities of Iloilo and Cebu. Thus, he decided to immediately provide city funds to CLMMRH to help build another biolab here to increase the testing capacity for Region 6. “This is a city initiative to partner with Dr. Julius Drilon, medical chief of CLMMRH, who was also urging the putting up of this biolab,” he said. He said that he was confident that Drilon will take care of complying with all the protocols of the DOH and the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM) on the project, as well as installing the biolab at the CLMMRH within the next 45-60 days. He also expects other local government units (LGUs) in the province and private donors to help purchase whatever test kits will be validated by the DOH-RITM as compatible with this biolab at the CLMMRH. In the meantime, until this Bacolod biolab is up and running, the city will continue to get its supply of swab test kits for specimen-collection from DOH-6 for processing at the biolab in Iloilo, which is the current protocol. City funds amounting to ₱5 million will be used to purchase the test kits that are compatible with the machines in the Iloilo biolab in the meantime and, eventually, for the Bacolod biolab.
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