Las Pinas City to build its own Covid-19 testing laboratory

from news.mb.com.ph by Jean Fernando:

The Las Piñas City government is planning to put up its own laboratory testing center for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to obtain sooner the results of swab testing conducted on individuals in the city.

City Administrator Rey Balagulan said Mayor Imelda Aguilar wanted the city to have its own laboratory testing center to immediately determine whether suspect and probable cases are positive for coronavirus so that they can be confined in a hospital for treatment as soon as possible.

Balagulan said that Aguilar, in her letter sent to the Department of Health (DOH), identified the place where the city government wanted to build the laboratory testing center. It is in an area not frequented by residents, in order to further contain the spread of the virus in the city.

He added that it is every city’s problem that a sample brought to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine or the Philippine Red Cross will take a week, sometimes up to 28 days, to process.

“Having our own laboratory testing center will be a big help for the city government to determine whether an individual positive for the virus need to be brought immediately to the hospital for treatment,” Balagulan said.

He also said the city government is just waiting for the technical group from the DOH to inspect the site of the proposed laboratory.

“We are also ready for the funding in putting up the testing center,” Balagulan said.