ILOILO City – Two specialists from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Manila are here to kick-start analyzing specimens taken from Ilonggos suspected of having coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Complete with kits, primers, reagents, and control, the specialists arrived yesterday morning and immediately checked the laboratory of the Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC) in Mandurriao district which the Department of Health (DOH) accredited as a COVID-19 test center.
“After four hours, the WVMC lab was declared capable of testing COVID-19 samples,” said former Health secretary Janette Garin who requested DOH to send RITM specialists to Iloilo.
“By tomorrow (March 23), we expect results from the backlog of samples,” said Garin yesterday.
Fast action, she stressed, would save lives.
A medical doctor, Garin is now the congresswoman of Iloilo’s 1st District where Western Visayas’ second COVID-19 positive case came from. The first case was from Bacolod City.
“While we are praying for the recovery of my constituent currently intubated, we appeal for the understanding of all,” said Garin.
The patient was from Garin’s hometown, Guimbal. He was a 65-year-old retired seaman.
He was tested on March 13 and the result from RITM came out eight days after – on Saturday morning, March 21.
According to DOH Region 6, the patient had no travel history to countries and cities with coronavirus cases but was exposed to relatives who had recently travelled to Japan and Canada but were asymptomatic.
The patient started to manifest symptoms like cough and fever on March 6 and was hospitalized on March 13.
Garin said mayors in the 1st District of Iloilo were currently beefing up their quarantine centers. Barangays with positive cases will have door to door check.
“We target isolating the infected from the possibly infected, and protect the uninfected. This will be a hard task but we are counting on the support and cooperation of all. God bless and keep safe everybody,” said Garin.
She also announce that with the “able leadership” of Iloilo City’s Mayor Jerry Treñas, WVMC chief Dr. Joseph Dean Nicolo and team, the Western Visayas Sanitarium and West Visayas State University Medical Center’s (WVSUMC) dedicated officers and staff, they have embarked on the following plan:
* WVMC to serve as dedicated COVID-19 hospital
* WVSUMC as non-COVID-19 hospital
* Sanitarium to absorb spill over from WVSUMC but will be concurrently enhanced/upgraded by specialists from WVSUMC
Garin said in the event WVMC will reach its maximum capacity, WVSUMC will be the second COVID-19 dedicated hospital and the Sanitarium, together with Iloilo district hospitals (upon clearance from Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr.) will be the non-COVID hospitals.
Meanwhile, two medical technologists of WVMC flew in to Manila yesterday afternoon for a weeklong on-site training on COVID-19 testing at the RITM.
Garin thanked DOH and Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go for quickly acting favourably on her request to “borrow” two RITM specialists.
She made the request on Friday evening; the approval came Saturday afternoon./PN
