Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 4) – The Department of Health said Wednesday more medical facilities could soon test patient samples for novel coronavirus infection or COVID-19.
“We are now expanding our testing capacity. We have subnational laboratories that are up for accreditation by Research Institute of Tropical Medicine,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said in a briefing.
These are the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City, Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City, Baguio General Hospital in Baguio City and the Lung Center of the Philippines in Quezon City.
He said the medical institutions might be accredited in eight weeks, adding he asked the RITM to shorten it by four weeks.
RITM is currently the only accredited facility that could identify if suspected cases are positive for COVID-19. The results come out within 24 hours to 48 hours of receiving samples. They have tested more than 500 “patients under investigation” — those who exhibit flu-like symptoms, as well as had history of travel to China or contact with confirmed cases. This was after the RITM recieved the test kits or “primers” ordered from Japan. Before the test kits arrived in late January, specimens had to be sent to a reference laboratory in Australia for confirmation.
The top health official also responded to a criticism the confirmatory testing in the Philippines is slower compared to other countries such as South Korea.
South Korea has more than 500 coronavirus testing sites, which have screened more than 100,000 people, CNN reported. It has also pioneered a testing station inspired by drive-through counters at McDonalds and Starbucks, CNN added.
He then defended the time it takes to test patients for COVID-19 in the Philippines, saying the RITM “does a far more tedious procedure” to make sure they do not produce “false negative” results.
The number of COVID-19 cases in the country remains at three, with one fatality. All of them are Chinese nationals from Wuhan – China’s city at the epicenter of the outbreak.
