CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—A set of lab equipment for mass testing for coronavirus in Luzon is being flown from China and expected to arrive at the Clark International Airport (CRK) on Tuesday (April 21) night.
Dr. Monserrat Chichioco, medical director of the Jose B. Lingad Memorial Regional Hospital (JBLMRH), said the shipment’s expected arrival time was 9:30 p.m.
The JBLMRH is recipient of a complete diagnostic molecular pathology lab funded by a grant from the Asian Development Bank.
Some of the equipment, she said, had been unloaded from a commercial flight in Manila on Monday (April 20).
Chichioco said the Pampanga provincial government lent trucks and workers to haul the cargo from the Philippine Air Force’s Haribon Airport in CRK and assigned police escorts for the transport of the equipment to JBLMRH.
Cesar Cassion, Department of Health director in Central Luzon, said the JBLMRH will be designated as a Pandemic Sub-national Reference Laboratory when it complies with standards set by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM). RITM is the country’s primary testing facility for coronavirus.