Bicol lab to resume COVID-19 testing

LEGAZPI CITY – Ten days after its exhaust duct was damaged by Typhoon Ambo (international name: Vongfong), Bicol’s testing center for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may finally resume testing samples from the region’s suspected cases on Tuesday, May 26.

The Bicol Regional Diagnostic and Reference Laboratory (BRDRL), located at the Bicol Regional Training and Teaching Hospital in this city, redirected swab specimens from the region to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) due to the damaged exhaust duct, which maintains the negative pressure of the center’s biological safety cabinet.

According to the Department of Health (DOH) in Bicol, staff from the Philippine Business for Social Progress were able to recommend repair work on the damage.

“The exhaust duct is now fixed, hence, collected samples will no longer be re-routed to the RITM for COVID-19 testing,” DOH Bicol Director Ernie Vera announced on Monday evening in a statement.

Since May 16, 229 samples from Bicol were tested at the RITM.

On May 19, two polymerase chain reactions (PCR) machines with a combined testing capacity of 600 arrived in Legazpi City to help ramp up testing in the region.

However, according to DOH, the testing center cannot maximize its use due to limited personnel.

“As of now, the BRDRL does manual extraction, which takes about three to four hours for a batch of 30 to 40 samples on a two-shift duty,” said Vera. “Two teams had been organized to do at least 90 to 100 tests per day from 30 to 50 tests per day done at the start of the BRDRL COVID-19 testing.”