COVID-19 diagnosis tools from SoKor, China coming

MANILA, Philippines — Local hospitals may expect to use soon some 3,500 new testing kits for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), all courtesy of South Korea and China.

The kits are awaiting approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said on Saturday.

In a media briefing, Duque said the Department of Health (DOH) hoped to speed up testing as Metro Manila goes into a monthlong “community quarantine” starting today.

“There is a global shortage of rapid diagnostic tests that is polymerase chain reaction-based,” said Duque, referring to the technology used in identifying the “fingerprint” of the virus. “But we’re hoping to expand our capacity soon.”

Speed up evaluation

Around 500 testing kits donated by South Korea arrived on Friday, to be followed by a thousand more, he added.

Another batch of 2,000 kits is expected from China.

The DOH has ordered the FDA to speed up the evaluation of these imported kits — as well as the one developed by local scientists from the University of the Philippines—National Institutes of Health and thus expedite their use on patients.

Udenna partnership

Udenna Foundation of Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy has partnered with South Korea’s Myongji Hospital to donate 1,000 diagnostic kits to the DOH.

In a statement on Saturday, Udenna said Myongji Hospital played a vital part in the diagnosis and treatment of the first batch of patients confirmed of having been infected with COVID-19 in Seoul.

The detection kit developed can push up the accuracy of the diagnosis results to 99.9 percent, while decreasing the time required to less than two hours, it added.

‘Somber times’

“These are very somber times. COVID-19 is not just a national problem but is a global epidemic,” Uy said. “While we’re literally disallowed to join hands, nothing is stopping the private sector, the local government, and the international community from responding collectively to contain, or at the very least slow the spread of COVID-19. We all have a role, and this is our small share to help.”

“We are encouraged by these signs of solidarity. We thank the Udenna Foundation and South Korea’s Myongji Hospital for the opportunity to assist the Philippines in building a response system to COVID-19,” the statement quoted as Duque saying.

Myongji was one of the first hospitals in South Korea to successfully treat confirmed cases with the use of an accurate and state-of-the-art coronavirus diagnostic kit, newly developed by its subsidiary biomedical company CancerRop.

—Krixia Subingsubing and Miguel Camus