A set of laboratory equipment with 45,000 test kits arrive at Clark International Airport. CONTRIBUTED/CDC-CD PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Laboratory equipment and 45,000 COVID-19 test kits from China arrived at Clark International Airport Wednesday.
The lab equipment and test kits, funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), were developed by Beijing Genome Institute and were flown from Shenzhen, China to Clark via a Philippine Air Force C130 cargo plane.
Jose B. Lingad Memorial General Hospital (JBLMGH) in San Fernando, Pampanga will house the equipment that has the capability of conducting 3,000 tests per day, making the hospital a Pandemic Sub-national Reference Laboratory.
According to the Department of Health, BGI will assign its own full-time staff in the facility to guide in the preparation of the laboratory and will help in staff training providing technical support during the first week in operation.
JBLMGH is on stage 3 of its accreditation while its personnel is undergoing training at Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), according to DOH.
Proficiency testing of the equipment and test kits from BGI on COVID-19 laboratory samples will begin from May 2 to 10.
Certification will be given on May 15 and the JBLMGH can run tests on samples at full capacity on May 16 once the RITM has confirmed the laboratory’s testing accuracy.