DOH: Lung Center scales down testing amid staggering COVID-19 samples

MANILA, Philippines — The Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP), one of 20 hospitals accredited by the government to process specimen samples for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) tests nationwide, is “scaling down” its operations, the Department of Health (DOH) said Wednesday.

According to DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, LCP is already overwhelmed with samples ever since the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) reduced its laboratory operations two weeks ago due to a COVID-19 outbreak in their facility.

“Nag-announce ang Lung Center of the Philippines of the Philippines noong isang araw that they are scaling down processes,” she said in a Laging Handa press briefing.

(The LCP announced the other day that they are scaling down processes.)

“Ito ay sa kadahilanang nagpatong-patong na ang mga test na pinapadala sa kanila mula noong nagkaroon tayo ng scaling down of RITM operations,” Vergeire added.

(This is because test samples sent to them are piling up since we had a scaling down of RITM operations.)

She, however, assured that the health department is already addressing the problem. She said the Philippine Red Cross is ready to take on samples intended for LCP to help the hospital deal with the backlog.

To date, the Philippines has 9,684 confirmed COVID-19 cases, of which 1,408 have recovered while 637 others have died.

KGA