La TRINIDAD, Benguet March 27 – The health department sincerely apologized to Benguet Caretaker Congressman and Anti-Crime and Terrorism through Community Involvement and Support (ACT-CIS) Party-list Rep. Eric Go Yap for the discomfort and inconvenience that was caused to him by the erroneous results of his Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) test result that showed that he was earlier positive of the deadly virus.
In a statement sent by the health department to the lawmaker’s office, the agency publicly apologized to Congressman Yap for forwarding a report of his COVID 19 results that displayed a clerical oversight.
“Rep. Yap remains negative of COVID 19. His results are by no means a false positive. This isolated incident was brought about by an encouraging error which was discovered late last night by the molecular biology laboratory of the agency’s Research Institute of Tropical Medicine,” the apology statement stated.
The DOH asserted that the agency’s testing process is compliant with the World Health Organization (WHO) protocol and that their results remain accurate despite the said isolated incident.
According to the statement, the polymerase chain reaction testing procedure still stands as the good standard in detecting the generic sequence of the SARS-COFV-2, the virus that causes COVID 19.
For the assurance of the public, the DOH reviewed all results the agency had previously forwarded and it is affirmed that the aforesaid incident remains isolated.
The agency also added another layer of verification for all succeeding reports that will be submitted and that the DOH promised that the said incident and other associated incidents will never happen again.
The DOH disclosed that the individual responsible for the aforesaid incident was allegedly enlisted as an augmentation staff from outside the regular work force of the laboratory and that the said employee is being dealt with administratively.
By Dexter A. See
