New lab in Pampanga to start COVID-19 mass testing on Sunday
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO –– Health Secretary Francisco Duque has ordered local health authorities to start this Sunday, May 10, the operations of a newly installed laboratory for coronavirus mass testing at the Jose B. Lingad Memorial Regional Hospital (JBLMRH) in this Pampanga capital.
Duque announced this on Saturday during the Asian Development Bank’s turnover of its $3-million grant in the form of a molecular pathology laboratory to the Department of Health.
He wanted the facility to help the government meet its goal of 30,000 tests daily.
Having passed the five-stage accreditation process, the laboratory was supposed to be operational on May 16.
Dr. Monserrat Chichioco, medical director of the JBLMRH, said the laboratory could do 2,000 tests in two shifts and 3,000 on a 24-hour operation.
Pampanga Gov. Dennis Pineda highlighted the importance of the facility because there was none in the whole of Central Luzon.
The Beijing Genomics Institute made the “high-quality large-capacity” facility that is being prepared as a Pandemic Sub-national Reference Laboratory, according to DOH regional director Cesar Cassion.
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