Stringer Dale Israel contributed to this report.
Cebu (CNN Philippines, May 17)— The COVID-19 testing capability in Cebu may be scaled down for a few days as its main testing laboratory undergoes decontamination, local officials said Sunday.
While the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center subnational laboratory faces reduced operations, Department of Health-Central Visayas director Jaime Bernadas said two other accredited laboratories— TB Regional Laboratory and the ARC Hospital in Lapu-Lapu City— will still be running samples and tests for the infectious disease.
At present, the subnational laboratory has four machines that are capable of conducting around 80 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests each daily. The two other laboratories have lower testing capabilities.
About 329 coronavirus tests were conducted on May 13, while only 88 tests were released for the entire Central Visayas region on May 14, according to health officials’ record. Last May 15, only 28 tests were conducted.
DOH-7 usually records over 200 tests per day.
The local health agency has yet to release the official number of test results for May 16. Bernadas, however, said they expect to be “back on track” to address the testing backlog in about two days.
Since the start of operations of the COVID-19 testing laboratories in the area, the entire Cebu Island was able to test 11,792 as of May 15.
Data from the regional health department showed 8,436 individuals were swab tested in Cebu City, while 1,536 have also been tested in Cebu province.
Cebu City has a population of 1.01 million residents, while Cebu Province is home to 3.22 million as of May 11.
The Philippine government has meanwhile expressed hope that the country can reach the target of conducting 30,000 COVID-19 tests daily by the end of the month. In an earlier interview with CNN Philippines, Vince Dizon, deputy chief implementer of the national policy against COVID-19, said the goal is doable with the help of the private sector.
To date, the country has logged over 12,000 cases of the viral disease.
