La Trinidad, Benguet – Benguet caretaker congressman and Anti-Crime and Terrorism through Community Involvement and Support (ACT-CIS) Party-list Rep. Eric Go Yap was elated after learning from health officials of the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC), the accredited sub-national testing center in Northern Luzon, that the release of test results from the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) machines have been fastracked because of the availability of the multi-million automated extraction machine that was loaned to the facility by the Benguet General Hospital (BeGH).
Yap, who chairs the House committee on appropriations, earlier donated to BeGH over P5 million worth of equipment that included a RT-PCR machine and an automated extraction machine to be used to enhance the testing capacity of health facilities in the province that will help in ascertaining the percentage of the population infected by the dreaded Corona Virus Disease (COVID) 2019.
However, BeGH temporarily owned the aforesaid units of health equipment to the BGHMC through a memorandum of agreement that stipulated that a portion of the daily tests that will be undertaken will be exclusively for the swab specimens coming from Benguet to help fastrack the release of the results to aid contact racers and local governments in coming out with prompt decisions to prevent the spread of the deadly virus in the province.
The lawmaker underscored that what is important is that the units of health equipment purchased from his personal resources and was donated to the BeGH was able to be instrumental in speeding up the release of test results from the previous 5 to 10 days to only 2 to 3 days aside from increasing the testing capacity of the designated sub-national testing center from 600 to over 1,000 tests daily.
According to him, BGHMC authorities informed about the significant contribution of the RT-PCR and the automated extraction machines that was loaned to the facility by the BeGH was instrumental in improving the center’s testing capacity and the close to real time release of the swab test results, thus, it is good to learn that all systems are doing good in the ongoing anti-COVID operations in the city and the province.
Previously, BGHMC had been operating manually in the extraction of specimens from the kits that caused the delay in the release of the results of probable or suspected COVID patients that come from the different parts of Northern Luzon where the specimens are coming from.
Congressman Yap disclosed that from the P4.3 million estimated purchase price of the automated extraction machine, the same was reduced to only P2.6 million when it was delivered, thus, the substantial savings that could be used for other purposes such as the consumables and other re-agents needed to sustain the operation of the machine.
He underscored that the most feasible way to win the battle against the deadly virus is for the identification of the portion of the population by conducting the required testing so that people that have contracted the same will be immediately isolated to prevent them from contaminating innocent individuals because it will establish a worst case scenario.
By Hent
