Inside the JBL testing lab. Pampanga PIO file photo
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — A total of only 1,562 tests for coronavirus disease, at two shifts at that, as of May 23. Of these, 17 tested positive.
That is the “actual performance” of the $2.5-million molecular pathology laboratory at the Jose B. Lingad Memorial Regional Hospital here since it started operating May 11. This, as gleaned from the Department of Health in its Covid-19 tracker on health system capacity, and that the laboratory still has 43,361 test kits.
The lab facility was built by the Beijing Genomics Institute, a Chinese firm, on a grant by the Asian Development Bank and inaugurated by Health Secretary Francisco Duque and Cabinet Secretary Karl Nograles last May 9.
At that launch, the JBLMRH laboratory was hyped by the DOH “to ramp up the country’s testing capacity” by 2,000 tests for two shifts and 3,000 tests in a 24-hour operation, both using Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR).
“The laboratory is scaling up at 720 to 1,200 testing capacity while the recruitment of staff is continuous,” said JBL medical director Dr. Monserrat Chichioco, adding that results are out in 48 hours.
An unidentified local official was cited in a local media report as saying that few samples are being brought for testing at JBLMRH laboratory because local governments have standing memoranda of agreement with other facilities until June.
