DOH-10 to open two public laboratories to fast track COVID-19 testing 

CAGAYAN DE ORO, April 29 (PIA) – Dr. Adriano Suba-an, regional director of the Department of Health (DOH) – 10, disclosed  that they plan to fast-track COVID-19 testing capabilities in Northern Mindanao through the acquisition of two public laboratories. 

The first one is the Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC) to serve as a testing center using the Rapid TB Diagnostic Laboratory and the second one is the DOH-CHD-NM TB Reference Center, which will conduct Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction or RT-PCR. 

“The importance of having our own testing centers is that we don’t have to send our specimens to Davao or Manila. We can now test it at our regional office so we can speed up the confirmation process of our COVID-19 suspected cases,” DOH-10 Health Education and Promotion Officer Aian Rebollido Caridad shared. 

As of now, the TB Reference Center is now 90 percent compliant for Stage 2 evaluation and is now undergoing training for their Medical Technologists from NMMC and DOH-CND-NM with regard to Biosafety Training which will be conducted at Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) which is one of the steps in order to add testing facilities. (Vincent Philip S. Bautista/PIA10)

source https://pia.gov.ph/news/articles/1040362