Google map of Agusan del Sur.
BUTUAN CITY – Agusan del Sur's first molecular laboratory will start processing coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) specimens starting this Tuesday.
“The license to operate of the molecular laboratory has already been issued by the Department of Health (DOH) for its operation as a Covid-19 laboratory,” Governor Santiago B. Cane Jr. said in a Facebook post on Monday.
Located inside the provincial capitol premises in Prosperidad town, the facility was constructed in the middle of July last year with a budget of PHP17 million to fast-track the swab samples' processing using the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method.
“Starting tomorrow, January 19, the Democrito O. Plaza Memorial Hospital (DOPMH) molecular laboratory will officially start processing Covid-19 specimens. This means RT-PCR swab specimens taken in Agusan del Sur will no longer be taken to other labs outside of the province,” Cane said.
Cane said he hopes the results would come out on the same day the specimens are taken.
The Provincial Health Office said that 11 new Covid-19 cases have been recorded in the province Jan. 15 and 16, bringing the province's active cases to 307.
As of Monday, Agusan del Sur recorded 1,240 Covid-19 cases and 893 recoveries since the pandemic was declared in March last year. (PNA)
