DOH Local Health Support Division chief Lailani Mangulabnan and JBLMRH director Monserrat Chichioco. PIA-3 file photo
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO –The Department of Health (DOH) said the country now has 17 testing centers for the highly-infectious Covid-19 which has infected more than 6,000 Filipinos so far.
It added that 47 laboratories are now undergoing certification process to become testing facilities.
In Central Luzon, seven hospitals have applied to be Covid-19 testing centers.
These include Jose B. Lingad Memorial Regional Hospital, The Medical City Clark, Rafael Lazatin Memorial Medical Center also known as the Ospital Ning Angeles, Green City Medical Center, Central Luzon Doctors’ Hospital, Tarlac Provincial Hospital, and the Bataan General Hospital and Medical Center.
Covid-19 response chief implementer Carlito Galvez, Jr. said 57 hospitals are being assessed by DOH and the Research Institute for Tropical Medicin. It was learned that of this number, 17 are already in the fifth stage of accreditation process to become testing centers.
It was reported that the government is targeting to conduct 8,000 tests per day as more hospitals or laboratories will be accredited soon.
In Metro Manila, the accredited testing centers include the UP National Institutes of Health and San Lazaro Hospital in Manila; Philippine Red Cross and Detoxicare Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory in Mandaluyong; Lung Center of the Philippines, St. Luke’s Medical Center, and Victoriano Luna Hospital in Quezon City; The Medical City in Pasig; Makati Medical Center; St. Luke’s Medical Center-BGC inTaguig and the RITM, Inc. in Muntinlupa.
Meanwhile, in a regional virtual press briefing on Monday, DOH Local Health Support Division chief Lailani Mangulabnan revealed that JBLMRH is the only hospital in Central Luzon that has progressed to stage three of the process. The six others are still on stage one.
“JBLMRH is at stage three of the laboratory accreditation wherein hospital personnel will undergo training before the conduct of mass testing. The personnel will be trained by the RITM that will take about three days. Then, the fourth stage is proficiency testing, and the fifth and final stage is the full-scale implementation. The laboratory in the hospital will then be certified and allowed to process and test samples,” Mangulabnan explained.
In this connection, JBLMRH chief Monserrat Chichioco discussed measures to accommodate the possible influx of Covid-19 patients in the hospital.
“We have converted some of our wards into Covid-19 dedicated wards and as of now, we have 119 beds. But we are still converting another ward for us to have another Intensive Care Unit. Because our ICU dedicated to COVID-19 is accommodating to only 20 critical care patients,” Chichioco said.
She also assured the public that they will continue to serve non-Covid patients amid the closure of nearby medical institutions.
“We are smoothly running the facility in regards to the Covid-19 but we did not close our usual or regular services to patients since some hospitals have limited their services. So even though we have Covid-19 patients, we continue our services for 400 admitted patients which consists of various cases such as pediatrics, OB-gynecology, surgical and orthopedic,” she said.
The DOH reported a total of 304 confirmed Covid-19 cases including 46 recoveries and 32 fatalities in Central Luzon as of April 18.
