Inquirer remains free of COVID-19

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) remains COVID-19-free based on the results of rapid and antigen tests conducted on its employees recently by LabX Corp.

The tests were administered July 14 on around 200 Inquirer employees, as well as security guards, utility workers and subcontractual personnel, at the newspaper’s main office in Makati City for their “peace of mind” and as part of the company’s health and safety program drawn up at the onset of the pandemic, according to Renato Lao, vice president for human resources and administration.

“The good [thing] with LabX is that it carries a service with confirmatory testing. If someone tested positive in the rapid test, [the standard course of action] is to make them undergo the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test,” Lao said.

“LabX was chosen because they introduced the antigen tests, which automatically confirms within 15 minutes if the antibodies are COVID-related,” Lao added.

Introducing antigen kits in the country, LabX Corp. launched the Sofia 2 SARS Antigen Fluorescent Immunoassay, approved by the US and Philippine Food and Drug Administration. The process quickly detects fragments of proteins found on or within the virus by testing samples collected from the nasal cavity through painless swabs.