COTABATO CITY – The Bangsamoro government’s Health Ministry announced Friday its ongoing exploration of an alternative testing instrument for coronavirus (COVID-19) cases with the use of the so-called GenExpert Machine or GEM originally intended for analyzing tuberculosis (TB).
“In case of a success in our exploration, we will have speedy process in testing COVID-19 patients because we will not be required to travel to Davao and Manila or wait for standard testing kits from the metropolis cities,” Dr. Safrullah Dipatuan, Bangsamoro health minister, told a press briefing here on Friday.
Dipatuan said the Cotabato Regional and Medical Center (CRMC), operating here under the national government via the Department of Health (DoH) supervision, has available laboratories to perform COVID-19 testing using the GEM.
“The testing (is) done in a Biosafety Level 2 (BSL-2) laboratory like the one (existing) at the CRMC. It means the lab must have a biosafety cabinet and a Negative Pressure HVAC System. Hence, not all laboratories are qualified to perform this,” Dipatuan said.
Required in the explorative process, he said, are additional machines, supply of appropriate cartridges and additional medical technologists to perform the test.
Dipatuan said a positive exploration result will prompt the regional government through the MOH to install GEMs in other BARMM field referral hospitals like the Maguindanao Provincial Hospital, Narawi City’s Amai Pakpak Medical Center, and other hospitals in the Bangsamoro island provinces.
The GEM has been originally intended for testing TB and now approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for “detecting severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2) that is causing COVID-19,” he said.
“The said information to use the machine (GEM) is also approved by the DoH,” Dipatuan said.
In an earlier interview, he explained that the supply of standard testing has been scarce in regions and provinces.
Besides being hard to obtain, the standard testing kits would sometime yield “false results if not properly and timely administered on patients,” Dr. Dipatuan said.
He pointed out “such possibility will negate our stride against COVID-19 or may even worsen the situation.”
Meanwhile, latest data from the MOH showed that the entire BARMM has 185 persons under investigation (PUIs) and 6,697 under monitoring (PUMs), as of 9 p.m. of March 26, 2020.
The region has posted five COVID-19 cases, including two admitted, one on strict home quarantine, and two deaths. (Ali G. Macabalang)