ROXAS City – The Roxas City government opened its own COVID-19 testing laboratory at the Hortus Botanicus in this city on Tuesday, Oct. 20.
The Roxas City Diagnostic and Laboratory Center is the first molecular laboratory in the province of Capiz, 10th in the whole Western Visayas and 112th in the country.
According to Roxas City mayor Ronnie Dadivas, the facility is their strong and concrete response to the pandemic – the city’s fighting chance against COVID-19.
“Having our own testing center is the next best thing to a vaccine because this will facilitate a more efficient testing, contact tracing, and prevention of the spread of infection,” Dadivas emphasized.
The inauguration and blessing of the city’s RT-PCR laboratory was held in the presence of Department of Health (DOH) 6 Regional Director Marlyn Convocar; Office of Civil Defense (OCD) Regional Director Roberto Nuñez, chair of the Regional Task Force on COVID-19; and all the city’s partners in government and non-government organizations.
“This is the right time for the city to have its own diagnostic center,” said Convocar.
She also conveyed the DOH’s commitment to help the city in sustaining the laboratory and offer technical and logistical assistance.
Based on the DOH guidelines, Convocar said the molecular laboratory has three purposes to include diagnostic to determine those who are positive for COVID-19 and their close contacts; screening of people, especially those coming from high-risk areas; and surveillance to determine the picture of COVID-19 at the population level through a random test.
“We should not be surprised if cases will increase in Roxas City. With the provision of access to (a) laboratory, it’s very possible that we will have an increase of confirmed cases,” she said. “However, it should be treated in such a way that local government units (LGUs) know how to contain it since they have cases. This is possible because “we know where they are, we know whom to be isolated and quarantined.”
Based on DOH-6 record, 685 or 4.6 percent of the 14,791 total cumulative cases in the region came from Capiz.
In terms of death, 28 or eight percent of the total 349 fatalities in Western Visayas came from the province.
Convocar said all the needed laboratory test kits and consumables will be directed to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), while the viral transport media for swabbing will be under DOH-6.
The DOH also provided four medical technologists who will work in the laboratory until December this year.
Meanwhile, Dadivas, in a media interview, said the testing is free for qualified and eligible, such as those with exposure to COVID-19 positive, residents of the city. Those who will get tested for employment or tourists will have to pay.
As approved by the city council, the testing fee is PHP4,000 taking into account the expenses to be incurred in running the laboratory.
The laboratory will operate from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. and will initially handle 100 specimens a day but it looks forward to doubling the capacity.
Dadivas said the laboratory will also cater to nearby municipalities and not just Roxas City.
In his message during the program, the mayor said the laboratory “is added ammunition in flattening the curve.”
“We cannot control how this pandemic will progress or when it will end, but we can do everything that we can to cushion and lessen its impact on our people, our economy, and our city,” Dadivas stressed.
Meanwhile, Nuñez visited again the newly inaugurated molecular laboratory yesterday. He also turned over some PPEs as part of OCD’s response operations against the pandemic. (with a report from PNA/PN)
