BY VANNE TERRAZOLA
Senator Cynthia Villar has welcomed the opening of a laboratory for the processing of coronavirus (COVID-19) tests in Las Piñas City.
The COVID-19 testing facility is located in the Las Piñas General Hospital and Satellite Trauma Center (LPGH-STC) and is equipped with GeneXpert and real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) machines to process specimens collected from suspected and probable COVID-19 patients.
Villar expressed hope that similar facilities would be set up and accredited in other areas in the Philippines.
“DoH-operated hospitals should have their own testing centers, I hope the Department of Health could fast-track their application because we really need to improve our testing and tracing capacity and the accuracy of reporting of cases in this fight against COVID-19,” Villar said in a statement.
Villar said the establishment of the testing laboratory will improve the country’s testing capacity and recovery rate.
She said the RT-PCR machines have already passed the assessment of experts, and the laboratory personnel are competent to handle the GeneXpert technology.
Next week, the personnel will undergo proficiency exam in using the RT-PCR testing machine.
She acknowledged that the Las Piñas facility needs to go through a multi-stage process of laboratory assessment.
Earlier, the Villar family donated the equipment to the hospital to be able operate its own COVID-9 testing center, such as a donated a laboratory freezer, biological refrigerator, autoclave sterilizer and passbox. (Vanne Terrazola)
