DOH approves COVID-19 testing laboratory in Quezon

LUCENA CITY, Philippines  – The first “biosafety level 2 plus” (BSL-2+) molecular diagnostic laboratory in Quezon province has been approved by the Department of Health (DOH), provincial authorities disclosed Friday.

“Gov. Danilo Suarez would like to inform you that our COVID-19 bio-safety laboratory +2 has been approved by the Department of Health,” Gumaca Mayor Webster Letargo announced on his Facebook, quoting the information from provincial administrator Roberto Gajo.

According to Letargo, the province will have its own laboratory which will provide the result in two days.

A BSL-2+ laboratory will have the capability to conduct the test for the highly contagious coronavirus disease (COVID-19) virus.

Last week, Suarez, Lucena Mayor Roderick Alcala, and Dr. Gerardo Carmelo Salazar, president of Lucena United Doctors Hospital and Medical Center (LUDHMC) in Barangay Isabang here, signed a Memorandum of Agreement for the establishment of the BSL-2+ laboratory.

The hospital renovated its laboratory to meet specifications and requirements set by the DOH. The BSL-2+ laboratory will have an initial capacity of 90 tests per day.

Dr. Grace Santiago, head of the Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO), lamented that the turn-around of test results is slow because the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) located in Muntinlupa City is the only reference laboratory in the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon) region.

However, the RITM scaled down its operation last month due to an outbreak of COVID-19 cases among its employees.

On Saturday morning, Quezon has recorded 78 confirmed COVID-19 cases. At least 50 of them have recovered, while eight others succumbed to the coronavirus disease.

Starting May 16, Quezon will be placed under a general community quarantine until May 31.

/MUF