Negros Occidental Board Member Ryan Gamboa and Philippine Red Cross governors Jorge Lim and Jay Jalandoni (left to right) help unload the equipment for the Red Cross COVID-19 laboratory in Bacolod City at the Bacolod Silay Airport.
BACOLOD CITY –– An equipment that will be able to conduct 1,000 reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests a day arrived in Bacolod City on Wednesday.
It will be used at the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) Molecular Laboratory in Bacolod City, said Philippine Red Cross governors Jay Jalandoni and Jorge Lim.
Jalandoni said they were hoping the laboratory, located at the PRC Chapter Office in Bacolod behind Saint John’s Institute, would be operational before the end of July.
The laboratory can conduct 4,000 tests in 24 hours, but they were initially targeting 1,000 per day.
Lim said PRC laboratories in Cebu and Batangas were also expected to be operational by next week.
PRC is conducting 16,000 COVID-19 tests a day in various parts of the country, which will increase to 20,000 with the additional laboratories.
Bacolod City Administrator Em Ang said more COVID-19 laboratories are needed amid the serious backlog of COVID-19 tests in Bacolod and Negros Occidental.