MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines now has 10 laboratories that can conduct testing for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The Department of Health (DOH) on Monday said that as laboratories that are in full implementation for COVID-19 testing as of 2 p.m. April 6 are the following:
-Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in Muntinlupa City (900 tests a day)
-Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center in Baguio City (150 tests a day)
-San Lazaro Hospital in Manila City (60 to 100 tests a day)
-Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City (240 tests a day)
-Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City (100 tests a day)
-UP National Institutes of Health in Manila City (80 tests a day)
-Lung Center of the Philippines in Quezon City (100 tests a day)
-Western Visayas Medical Center in Iloilo City (80 tests a day)
-Bicol Public Health Laboratory in Legazpi City
-St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City
So far, eight laboratories in the country can conduct at least 1,710 COVID-19 tests a day.
Meanwhile, 69 more laboratories are being assessed and being prepared to handle tests for the disease.
“We currently have 10 laboratories that are in full implementation (Stage 5) of the COVID-19 testing, 4 are in Stage 4, 1 is in Stage 3, 20 are in Stage 2, and 44 are in Stage 1,” the DOH said in a Facebook post.
This is part of the DOH’s effort to expand the country’s testing capacity in an effort to be able to fully determine the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country.
The health department is targeting to conduct 3,000 COVID-19 tests per day by April 14 and 8,000 tests per day by the end of April.