LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines – The Bicol Regional Diagnostic and Reference Laboratory (BRDRL) will temporarily suspend its tests for the coronavirus disease after Typhoon Ambo (international name: Vongfong) caused damage to one of its facilities Friday.
Dr. Ernie Vera, director of Department of Health (DOH) in Bicol, said that 146 tests that were scheduled to be done at the region’s lone coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) laboratory will be redirected to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).
Ambo barreled through Bicol from Thursday evening to Friday, damaging the BRDRL’s biological safety cabinet (BSC), a machine with air filtration system that prevents the contamination of samples while they are being processed for the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. The BSC’s exhaust duct was damaged by the typhoon, the DOH said.
It is still unclear when the operations in the laboratory will resume.
“[DOH Bicol] is finding measures to fix the problem as soon as possible, and come up with other measures to ensure uninterrupted testing for COVID-19),” Vera said in a statement.
As of Friday, Bicol region has recorded 66 confirmed COVID-19 cases.