BAGUIO CITY – The City Council passed a resolution requesting the health department and the national inter-agency task force on the management of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases to provide an additional PCR test machine, re-agents and other related supplies and equipment to the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC) to increase its existing capacity to conduct confirmatory tests and speed up the release of results for those who underwent the required Corona Virus Disease (COVID) 2019 PCR-based tests.
The resolution stemmed from the concern raised by Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong that the BGHMC, one of the accredited independent testing laboratories in the country, has only a single PCR machine aside from inadequate supply of re-agents that contributed to the delay in the release of confirmatory test results for potential COVID cases.
BGHMC can perform some 270 to 300 tests daily with the existing PCR machine, thus, it could double its existing capacity or even reach the projected 720 tests daily once it has an additional PCR machine and sufficient supply of re-agents to facilitate the immediate release of test results.
Further, the Council also requested the health department to provide additional test kits for the independent test center to ensure that confirmatory tests for potential COVID patients could be immediately undertaken by the health authorities to guide them on interventions to take for confirmed cases.
Earlier, the health department accredited BGHMC as one of the 15 existing sub-national testing laboratories for COVID-19 to help increase the government’s capacity to test potential cases, especially that the curve has not yet flattened in the country.
Aside from Baguio City and the Cordillera, BGHMC is designated to serve as a confirmatory test center for the initial screening tests for northern Luzon.
Recently, President Rodrigo R. Duterte announced the government plans to purchase some 3 million rapid test kits, some 900,000 PCR-based test kits, PCR machines, among other important re-agents, supplies and equipment, to strengthen the ongoing campaign against the spread of the highly contagious virus and lessen the impact of the global pandemic to the country’s economy.
The passage of the resolution is part of the efforts of government agencies and the local government to make representations with the national inter-agency task force to provide the needed equipment and supplies to enhance the capacity of the designated independent testing center in the north.
City officials and health authorities expressed confidence the health department will heed the clamor from the local level in the equitable distribution of the available resources to strengthen the testing capacity of the designated independent testing centers.
By Dexter A. See
