Quezon to open COVID-19 testing laboratory

LUCENA CITY –– To speed up the testing process on suspected coronavirus disease (COVID-19) carriers in Quezon province, a “biosafety level 2 plus” (BSL-2+) laboratory would soon be put up in this city.

The accreditation process for the operation of the BSL-2+ laboratory at the Lucena United Doctors Hospital and Medical Center (LUDHMC) in Barangay Isabang here is ongoing and is expected to be completed before the end of May, Santiago said.

On Tuesday, Governor Danilo Suarez, Lucena Mayor Roderick Alcala, and Dr. Gerardo Carmelo Salazar, LUDHMC president, signed a Memorandum of Agreement for the establishment of the BSL-2+ laboratory.

Santiago lamented that the turn-around of the test result is slow because the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) located in Muntinlupa City is the only reference laboratory in the Calabarzon region.

Dr. Grace Santiago, the head of the Integrated Provincial Health Office, also disclosed the shortage of specimen kits from RITM after it scaled down its operation last month due to an outbreak of COVID-19 cases among its employees.

To address the situation, the Quezon provincial government bought new specimen kits to replenish the IPHO’s dwindling stock.

The specimen kits will be distributed to hospitals in different parts of the province, where there are confined suspected COVID-19 carriers and local government units with many COVID-19 suspects.

But the specimens would still be tested at the RITM for the meantime, Santiago said.

LZB