Temporary COVID lab to operate mid-November

By Francis Allan L. Angelo

 

Iloilo City’s temporary COVID-19 laboratory at the Alternative Learning School (ALS) at Brgy. San Pedro, Molo is expected to operate this month.

Mayor Jerry Treñas said he hopes that the laboratory will start processing COVID-19 specimen on Nov 16, 2020.

Treñas said the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) and the Department of Health (DOH) had assessed and evaluated the layout of the equipment and mechanical plans for the laboratory.

“Our Uswag Molecular Laboratory shall hopefully open on November 16, 2020 as we are currently complying with the recommendations of the RITM and DOH during their inspection so we can effectively cater all COVID-19 concerns of our residents. I visited the laboratory as well as our bodegas to ensure that we are on track with the construction and compliance,” he said.

In fact, vital equipment such as the Ribonucleic acid (RNA) extraction and Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) machines have already been installed at the ALS.

“We hope that we can open the laboratory as soon as the inspection is approved to cater to more COVID-19 concerns. We need to test immediately any suspected person and isolate them in order for us to help stop the virus,” he said.

According to Treñas, the city’s COVID team said that they have identified that many of those who took the swab test did not isolate, and some resulted to virus transmission.

“We request strict interventions, especially with our barangays to secure that our surroundings are safe from the virus,” he added.

Apart from the temporary lab at the ALS building, the city is also constructing a more permanent COVID lab also in the same vicinity.

“What we can do is to provide this temporary laboratory for the city so that we will be able to test more. Our new laboratory is still undergoing construction works,” Treñas said.

Based on latest data from the Iloilo City Health Office and the Iloilo City COVID-19 Emergency Operations Center, the city collected 39,803 swab specimens and recorded 16 new COVID cases.

The city also has 319 active cases with 3,530 recoveries.

On Sunday noon, the city reported 6 confirmed cases (partial data only).

In a situationer report, Iloilo City accounted for 23 percent of the total cases in Western Visayas (as of Oct 30).

The number of positive cases totaled 3,788 as of Saturday, 89% of which has recovered (3,377).

Active cases comprise 9 percent (329) of the total cases while almost 2% of the positive cases succumbed to the virus (82 deaths).