Cebu City now has mass testing capacity for COVID-19

CEBU CITY — The city is now capable of mass testing for COVID-19.

At a press conference on Monday (April 13), Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella said the city has acquired 30,000 test kits, 20,000 of which were handed over to the Cebu City Health Department (CCHD) and the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC).

The remaining 10,000 test kits were donated to the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH).

“We can now do mass testing in a way approved by the World Health Organization (WHO), the DOH, and the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on the coronavirus outbreak,” Labella said.

The CCHD is formulating guidelines on who would be tested.

Labella said the CCHD and CCMC can do at least 500 tests per day but results will still originate from the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, which had been accredited by WHO to conduct such tests.

“We just run out of test kits in the past few days. But with the development, you can now expect many people to undergo the test,” he said.

Since the city is now capable of mass testing, Labella said the city government is now rushing the construction of  quarantine facilities.

The Cebu City government has prepared 5,000 square meters of land at the North Reclamation Area as site of a one-story structure that could accommodate 300 COVID-19 patients.

Construction of the facility is expected to be finished within the week, Labella said.

Another facility that is expected to house possible COVID-19 patients is being set up at the basketball court of the former Sacred Heart School along General Maxilom Avenue in Cebu City.

“In three days, the quarantine facility in Sacred Heart can already be used,” said Labella.

As of 3 p.m. on Monday there are 33 COVID-19 patients in the entire island of Cebu. Of the number, 25 are from Cebu City.

The city also has five COVID-19 deaths.

Edited by TSB