Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire (File photo)
MANILA – Satellite laboratories of the Philippine Genome Center in Visayas and Mindanao will open next year, a health official said Thursday.
During an online media briefing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire reported that personnel of both satellite laboratories are completing all preparatory activities before their sites become operational.
“’Yung kanilang mga laboratory personnel have undergone two trainings already. May isa pa yatang kailangan na training na kailangan matapos bago matapos ang taon. Pagkatapos, ‘yung equipment nila unti unti nang dumarating (Their laboratory personnel have undergone two trainings already. There’s another training which must be completed before the year ends, then, their equipment are being delivered),” she said.
An inspection would follow once the laboratories are put in order and reagents are in place.
“In the whole, siguro, aantayin natin mga January or February of next year, mag-uumpisa po tayo sa ating (maybe, we’ll wait until January or February of next year, we’ll start with our) satellite laboratories in Visayas and Mindanao,” Vergeire said.
In the absence of genome sequencing laboratories in Visayas and Mindanao at the moment, Vergeire assured the public that samples from travelers entering the country through both island groups are also being sequenced.
“When we sequence, we get samples from all over the country, not only in Metro Manila, not only returning overseas Filipinos or incoming travelers from our ports here in Metro Manila or even in Clark,” she said.
Following the guidelines of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, incoming travelers who test positive for Covid-19 will have their samples sequenced for the presence of variants of concern.
“We are implementing that uniformly across all ports of entry here in the country,” Vergeire added.
On Wednesday, the Department of Health (DOH) reported two imported cases of the Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant which were detected from 48 samples sequenced by the Philippine Genome Center on Tuesday.
The DOH said the cases remain in isolation and their close contacts have been identified. (PNA)
