CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — The Asian Development Bank, through the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), granted the request of the Department of Health to develop the capacity of Jose B. Lingad Memorial General Hospital as a pandemic sub-national reference laboratory (PSRL) that would expand its capacity to detect the presence of SARS-CoV2 virus.
BGI, registered in the People’s Republic of China, provides a comprehensive solution for the set-up of a high-quality large capacity laboratory facility. This includes provision of complete equipment, reagents, test kits, consumables, personal protective equipment, training of national staff, and electronic management software and hardware. The solution also includes quality assurance system and waste decontamination and disposal.
BGI will station its own full-time staff in the PSRL facility to: (1) provide guidance during the preparation of the site, (2) train the national staff, (3) commission the facility, and (4) provide technical support during the first weeks of operation. Subsequently, it will provide permanent online and intermittent on-site technical support for trouble shooting and maintenance.
In preparation, JBLMGH started the construction of the facility on March 21 to April 18 as three BGI staff (laboratory technicians) and the laboratory equipment are expected to arrive in the Philippines on April 21 through air transport arranged by the Department of National Defense.
Installation and commissioning of the whole set-up is scheduled on April 22 to 30. Proficiency testing is expected to be done from May 2 to 10 wherein the laboratory may already accept Covid-19 samples. The laboratory will first need to test 5 positive samples as confirmed by RITM. Once all 5 positive samples have been confirmed by RITM as correct, the laboratory is expected to be certified by May 15 and is allowed to test samples at full scale by May 16.
Currently, JBLMGH is at stage 3 of accreditation process wherein staff who will operate the laboratory will undergo a special 3-day training at RITM scheduled this week. Once accreditation is completed and the laboratory is completely operational, we expect to scale up molecular testing for Covid-19 using polymerase chain reaction tests, and will ultimately contribute in the mass testing needed for post-lockdown efforts to continue suppressing Covid-19.
The PSRL facility is expected to continue to operate beyond the Covid-19 pandemic to support research on other pathogens, genetic disease, and cancer. The facility could also be used as a training facility for laboratory technicians.
