Third walk-in COVID-19 testing center in Manila starts operations

MANILA, Philippines — Manila City on Wednesday opened its third walk-in COVID-19 testing facility at the Justice Jose Abad Santos General Hospital to augment the city’s free mass testing capacity.

“Ito (third walk-in center) ay bahagi ng tuloy-tuloy na accessible, efficient and free for all COVID-19 mass testing ng Maynila,” said Manila Mayor Isko Moreno in a speech during the launch of the third testing center for the coronavirus disease.

(This center will be accessible, efficient and free for all COVID-19 mass testing in Manila.)

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Just like other free testing centers in Manila, Moreno said the walk-in testing facility will use serology machines which collect blood samples to detect the presence of novel coronavirus, the virus that causes COVID-19.

The first walk-in testing center was opened at the Ospital ng Sampaloc, while the second was established at the Gat Andres Bonifacio Memorial Medical Center.

Aside from walk-in testing centers, Manila also opened mobile testing centers and drive-thru testing centers to aid in tracing coronavirus disease patients in the capital city.

Meanwhile, Moreno vowed that despite recording 89 percent mild cases in the city, they will continue to  ramp up their free mass testing.

“Nakakatuwang isipin na we are in the right direction in such a way that DOH (Department of Health) said 89 percent of our active cases are mild cases. Ibig kong sabihin mukhang walang virus pero may virus,” Moreno said during his speech.

(It is good to know that we are in the right direction in such a way that DOH said 89 percent of our active cases are mild cases. What I mean is it seems that there is no virus but there actually is a virus.)

“Question is kung siya ay mild o asymptomatic, ang gagawin ng tao mag-re-relax. Kapag nag-relax, mahahawaan niya ang pamilya niya, katulad ng mga nangyaring datos sa buong bansa. Pami-pamilya na ang nahahawa. We will continue to engage in this direction. We will trace and trace, we will test and test and we will continue to follow guidelines of DOH,” he added.

(The question is if it is mild or asymptomatic, people might relax. If they will relax, they will infect their families just like what is happening to the data right now. We will continue to engage in this direction. We will trace and trace, we will test and test and we will continue to follow guidelines of DOH.)

EDV