DOH can ‘potentially issue’ license to Marikina lab next week – IATF

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) is eyeing to issue a license to allow the new testing site of Marikina to operate, a member of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging and Infectious Disease said Thursday.

“Based on the advice of DOH to us, they can potentially issue the license to Marikina Local Government Unit on Wednesday next week,” Jonathan Malaya, spokesperson of the IATF member Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), said in a text message.

“They are doing all they can to expedite the training of Marikina personnel as well as compliance with other DOH protocols,” he added.

Malaya also confirmed that the IATF expressed support to the new testing facility of Marikina, asking the DOH to expedite the approval of the testing facility.

“We’re only requesting not ordering the DOH to expedite the testing facility. Since this is a health matter, the DOH has full control over the exercise of its authority to issue a license,” he said.

Meanwhile, Marikina Mayor Marcelino Teodoro thanked the IATF for backing the facility, which can speed up the opening of the testing site.

“Ang magandang balita ay nagbigay ng tagubilin ang Inter-agency Task Force sa Department of Health na i-expedite ang accreditation na ginagawa ng DOH sa Marikina Testing Center upang sa lalong madaling panahon ito ay mabuksan,” the mayor said.

(The good news here is that the IATF told the DOH to expedite the accreditation for Marikina Testing Center so that it may open soon.)

“I am very thankful to IATF, especially to (Interior Chief Eduardo) Año and Executive Secretary (Salvador) Medialdea for backing our testing facility,” he added.

The new testing center, which is located along Bayan-Bayanan Avenue in Barangay Concepcion Uno,  has a floor area of 160 square meters and has no other offices sharing the building.

The city government earlier planned to establish a testing site on the sixth floor of Marikina City Health Office. Still, the DOH rejected the proposal because it did not pass biosafety standards of molecular laboratories for testing COVID-19 samples.

As of Wednesday, April 15, the city health office documented 73 confirmed cases with 18 deaths and seven recoveries.