Bacolod biolab to hasten swab results

By Dolly Yasa

 

BACOLOD City – Department of Health Region6 Regional Director Marlyn Covocar said the opening of the Level 3 Biosafety Molecular Laboratory of the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH) in Bacolod is a needed boost in the fight to contain the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19.

Convocar led the inauguration of the biolab Saturday together with Mayor Evelio Leonardia, Bacolod City Rep. Greg Gasataya and CLMMRH chief, Dr. Julius Drilon.

Convocar said the biolab is the 78th government-run facility in the country, the fourth in the region, and the second in Negros Occidental and this city.

She further said that the biolab is expected to speed up the release of COVID test results of Bacolodnons.

It would shorten the quarantine period for those who were subjected to the test and also hasten contact-tracing.

“The city is investing P20 million for this biolab and we can say definitely that it is worth it. It was a unanimous decision of our city officials to make this come true because we are all aware of its major positive impact in our fight against COVID-19. This is a big step towards our intention to do our mass testing soon,” Leonardia said.

“The mass testing is long-anticipated since the start of the COVID crisis because we needed to do test, trace, and treat. Mass testing is the aspect of our program that we need the most – as we all know with our situation before when we didn’t have our own biolab, we had to go to Iloilo,” he added.

Leonardia said the opening of the CLMMRH Level 3 Biosafety Laboratory is the most important phase of the mass testing.

The city government appropriated P14 million for the buildings and other structures of the biolaboratory, and P4.8 million for the procurement of equipment reagents and kits for COVID-19 testing.

The biosafety laboratory is a partnership between the Bacolod City government and CLMMRH.

Dr. Drilon said that for now, the biolab will be running 100 results per day and can also diagnose SARS-COV-2 cases.

On Friday Drilon released a DOH result stating that the Bacolod City Biolab has passed the Proficiency Test of the DOH.

The molecular biology laboratory started processing specimens Friday.