ILOILO City – There are now eight testing centers nationwide that can screen individuals suspected of being infected with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Malacañang announced.
One of these centers is the Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC) in Mandurriao district here.
Mayor Jerry Treñas, however, is pushing for additional testing machines at WVMC so the latter can analyse more specimens.
He also wants more accredited medical technologists to perform the test.
Treñas said he will also push for the accreditation of West Visayas State University Medical Center (WVSU-MC) in La Paz district as additional COVID-19 testing center in Region 6.
“We want mass testing. However, we do not have that capacity. Kinanglan we will have to push for more PCR (polymerase chain reaction) machines and more accredited med techs. The more we have them, the more testing we can do,” Trenas explained.
The mayor is pushing for the prioritization of persons under monitoring (PUMs) and patients under investigation (PUIs) for COVID-19 testing.
According to Dr. Mary Jane Juanico, Department of Health (DOH) Region 6 focal person for COVID-19, the testing machine at WVMC can accommodate a maximum of 44 specimens per day.
Treñas lamented that although Region 6 already has test kits – 5,000 – the machine can handle not so many specimens.
The test kits came from the DOH central office. Each test kit can test 22 specimens for a total of 110,000 for the whole region.
Aside from these, the Iloilo City Government with the help of the business sector also ordered 2,500 test kits from South Korea worth P5.5 million. These are set to arrive this week./PN
