COVID-19 task force sending 2,000 testing kits to PMA following outbreak

MANILA, Philippines—The National Task Force implementing the government’s COVID-19 response will donate 2,000 coronavirus testing kits to the Philippine Military Academy, which is seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases.

The kits would use the technology reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).

Maj. Gen. Edgard Arevalo, at a press briefing on Monday (Jan. 4), said the AFP was already coordinating with different government agencies, particularly with task force head Carlito Galvez Jr., “who promised to send 2,000 units or pieces of RT-PCR test kits to the PMA.”

He confirmed there had been COVID-19 cases in the PMA “and these involve cadets or food handlers servicing the cadets’ needs.”

At least 37 people in the PMA have tested positive for SARS Cov2, the virus that causes COVID-19, as of Saturday (Jan. 2) despite a hard lockdown, Inquirer reported.

READ: COVID-19 breaks out at PMA

COVID-19 cases in the country’s premiere military institution were discovered after testing, according to PMA spokesperson Maj. Cherryl Tindog, in a statement.

“We are comforted to note that all affected are asymptomatic and pose no greater danger to the cadets’ health,” said Tindog. “There are a number of them who have also recovered,” she said.

She said those infected had been treated, their contacts traced and isolated and the “further spread” of the virus had been “contained in coordination with concerned government agencies.”

There had been no official figure on the number of COVID-19 cases at the PMA, however.

TSB