ILOILO City – A group of alumni from the University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV) is pushing for an accredited testing center for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Iloilo.
Alumni group “IAMUPHi” gathered scientists, clinicians, doctors, laboratorians, hospital administrators and government officials for a meeting with the city government.
Professor Noel Ferriols, head of the Genome Center Visayas, said that Iloilo has Polymerase Chain Reaction machines currently situated in UPV, University of San Agustin (USA) and Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC). They are capable of running COVID-19 test kits that were newly developed by a team of UP experts, who are headed by Dr. Raul Destura.
While the laboratories of UPV, USA, and WVMC have the necessary equipment, expertise and biosafety requirements to run the test, an accreditation by the Department of Health is necessary before they can start the testing.
Two to three weeks of preparation are also needed to set up the laboratories, which is the same time that the UP Test Kits will be finally available for use.(With a report from PIA/PN)
