Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 16) — The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine has limited its laboratory operations due to coronavirus-infected personnel, supply shortage and other logistical constraints.
RITM Director Celia Carlos said in a statement Wednesday that they will “conduct full servicing of equipment, decontamination of facilities, and the urgent testing of staff” during the temporary scale down, which is until Saturday, July 18.
The institute said that 31 of its staff have tested positive for the infectious COVID-19. Ten still suffer from the disease’s symptoms while the others are ‘in their recovery state,’ and awaiting their repeat tests.
Some of the RITM employees have to undergo quarantine after coming into contact with those infected, Health spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire said separately.
RITM, the country’s main novel coronavirus testing center, said that to decrease their backlogs, it will send samples to other accredited COVID-19 testing facilities. RITM will only accept specimens from patients admitted within their testing zone in the meantime, Carlos said.
RITM first scaled down its test processing operations in April after at least 43 of its staff have tested positive for COVID-19.
