TACLOBAN CITY—Detecting the presence of COVID-19 in Southern Leyte province is expected to be faster with the opening of a molecular diagnostic laboratory in November.
The facility, expected to be operational by November, could process at least 1,000 tests per day, said Dr. Cleocita Portula, molecular laboratory pathologist.
Portula said the facility was funded through the help of the provincial government worth P60 million.
The needed equipment is now ready to be installed, while its nine personnel have completed their six-month training at the Eastern Visayas Medical Center.
With the molecular diagnostic laboratory in Southern Leyte, the region now has four facilities.
The other COVID-19 laboratories are Divine Word Hospital Virology Laboratory based in Tacloban City and the Ormoc Molecular Diagnostic Center in Ormoc City.
Southern Leyte has been seeing a spike in its COVID-19 cases for weeks now.
The province has 4,551 total COVID-19 cases, of which 503 are active. It has 3,860 recoveries and 503 deaths.