TESTING CAPACITY BOOSTED. Dr. Stephanie Abello (left), chief pathologist of Western Visayas Medical Center sub-national laboratory, says on Wednesday (May 20, 2020) that the testing capacity of the coronavirus disease 2019 laboratory is expected to increase from 500 to 1,000 daily. She said the laboratory has acquired a new automated Ribonucleic acid extraction machine that will help in the testing. (Photo courtesy of DOH 6)
ILOILO CITY – The Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC) sub-national laboratory gears to increase its coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) testing capacity from 500 to 1,000 daily through a new machine that arrived Wednesday.
Dr. Stephanie Abello, chief pathologist of WVMC, said in a regular virtual presser on Wednesday, that the region’s laboratory has acquired a new automated Ribonucleic acid (RNA) extraction machine.
“The RNA extraction is a separate step of the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) procedure. This morning, the machine has arrived. We are hoping that tomorrow, we will start the trial and validate the machine so that it can increase our capacity to 1,000 (tests daily),” she said.
Presently, the laboratory has three Reverse Transcription (RT) PCR test machines.
Although the laboratory can run only 500 tests daily, Abello said that they did not deny excess specimens.
“We do not refuse specimens (that exceeded the 500 limit). We store it properly to avoid deterioration,” she said.
Since the laboratory became functional last March 23, she said they were able to run a total of 8,527 tests as of Wednesday.
Clients of the laboratory are the local government units through the Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Unit (RESU) and requests from the hospitals.
Meanwhile, in the same virtual presser, Dr. Ma. Julia Villanueva, assistant regional director of the Department of Health-Center for Health Development (DOH-CHD) 6, said the region’s total Covid-19 cases is now 105.
This is based on the 58 total laboratory results released by the laboratory on Wednesday.
The new Covid-19 case in the region is a 32-year-old male from Roxas City, Capiz.
“He is on home quarantine and asymptomatic. He is a health worker from Capiz,” Villanueva said.
She said the new case started manifesting symptoms last May 14 and was swabbed for testing last May 18.
Meanwhile, the region has recorded four additional recoveries, bringing the total to 70.
New recoveries of the region are all from this city. They are a 51-year-old female and a 30-year-old male from La Paz, 50-year-old male from Molo and a 23-year-old male from the city proper. (PNA)
