ILOILO City – Four new test laboratories for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to open soon in this city and Iloilo province are seen to improve testing for the viral disease.
These are the city government laboratory in Barangay San Pedro, Molo district here, the laboratory at the Iloilo Metro Hospital and Medical Center in Barangay Tagbak, Jaro district, the laboratory at the Iloilo Provincial Hospital in Pototan, Iloilo, and the West Visayas State University Medical Center laboratory in Jaro.
These will bring to six the total COVID test laboratories here. The two currently in operation are at the Western Visayas Medical Center and the Qualimed Hospital both in Mandurriao district.
Mayor Jerry Treñas is hopeful that the releasing of COVID test results would be hastened.
The delay is causing congestion at quarantine facilities as those being confined could not be discharged – even if they are negative for the disease – if their COVID test results are not released.
On Saturday, 2,400 backlog specimens from this southern city were flown to Cebu for testing.
The city government’s COVID-19 team spokesperson Jeck Conlu said the Western Visayas Medical Center sub-national laboratory has been overwhelmed by specimens for testing.
The laboratory also has a shortage of personnel as some of them are still on quarantine.
“We plan to start the operation either by the last week of September or first week of October,” said Treñas, referring to the city government COVID laboratory in Barangay San Pedro, Molo.
The Iloilo provincial government’s laboratory at the Iloilo Provincial Hospital, on the other hand, is expected to start operating on Sept. 15.
Western Visayas currently has seven COVID test laboratories – of these, five are in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental. These are the Teresita L. Jalandoni Provincial Hospital molecular laboratory in Silay City, Negros Occidental; Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital molecular laboratory in Bacolod City; Bacolod Queen of Mercy Hospital – Molecular Laboratory; The Doctors Hospital, Inc. – Molecular Laboratory in Bacolod City; and the Philippine Red Cross laboratory.
Roxas City is also set to operate a mobile COVID test laboratory.
A total of 88,966 persons or 1.12 percent of Western Visayas’ population have so far been subjected to reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test for possible COVID-19 infection.
The target is two percent of the region’s population by Dec. 31, 2020, said Dr. Glen Alonsabe, epidemiologist of the Department of Health (DOH) Region 6.
“We still have time to catch up,” said Alonsabe.
At 29,925, Iloilo City has the most number of individuals tested, followed by Iloilo province (25,063), Negros Occidental (13,735), Bacolod City (12,485), Capiz (4,571), Aklan (1,156), and Antique (1, 020).
Alonsabe said Region 6 was recording an average of 110 COVID-19 cases daily last month from 23 new daily cases in July due to intensified testing and contact tracing.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has long been urging countries to ramp up their testing programs as the best way to slow the advance of the coronavirus pandemic.
Without testing, cases cannot be isolated and the chain of infection will not be broken, explained WHO secretary-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus./PN
