MANILA, Philippines — There are now 26 testing laboratories in the Philippines that are capable of detecting the SARS CoV-2—the coronavirus that causes the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
This is after the Department of Health (DOH) has approved the accreditation of the Jose B. Lingad Memorial Regional Hospital and the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center as an independent COVID-19 testing facility.
“There is now a total of 26 licensed RT-PCR laboratories across the country while three and 29 are on Stage 4 and Stage 3 certification, respectively,” the DOH said in a report released Sunday.
The 26 COVID-19 testing centers are the following:
Research Institute for Tropical Medicine
San Lazaro Hospital
UP National Institutes of Health
Lung Center of the Philippines
St. Luke’s Medical Center- QC
The Medical City – Ortigas
Victoriano Luna – AFRIMS
Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory
St. Luke’s Medical Center – BGC
Makati Medical Center
Philippine Red Cross
Chinese Gen. Hospital
PRC-PLMC
Philippine Genome Center UP-Diliman
Marikina Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory
UP-PGH Molecular Laboratory
Singapore Diagnostic, Inc.
Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center CAR
J B. Lingad Memorial Hospital III
De La Salle University – Cavite IV-A
Bicol Regional Diagnostic and Reference Laboratory V
Western Visayas Medical Center VI
Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center
Cebu TB Reference Laboratory
Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center VIII
Southern Philippines Medical Center XI
The government earlier said the country can now conduct 12,000 COVID-19 tests daily.
It added that it is aiming to carry out 30,000 tests daily as it eyes to have a total of 78 COVID-19 testing centers by May 30.
To date, there are 10,794 COVID-19 cases in the Philippines, including 1,924 recoveries and 719 deaths.