COVID-19 patient in Palawan dies before testing

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY—Health authorities were set to receive the specimen for COVID-19 testing of the person under investigation (PUI), one day after he died.

Noel Orosco, regional epidemiologist of the Department of Health (DOH), said on Thursday (March 19) that the samples were to be taken and sent to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) for confirmatory test.

He said in the Mimaropa region, 114 PUI had been recorded. He said the number increased because people from the provinces wanted to be tested, too.

“We encourage them that if the came from other places, they should get checked,” said Orosco.

Orosco, however, said lack of testing kits continued with the Food and Drugs Administration certifying the diagnostic set developed by University of the Philippines scientists only recently.

“If there is a new product, it has to go through quality assurance,” he said of test kits.

The FDA, he said, has approved only the one developed by the UP scientists.

Test kits donated by China and South Korea have yet to be approved by the FDA, he said.

Edited by TSB