PNP’s COVID-19 testing facility expected to open next week

MANILA, Philippines — A coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) testing center for police personnel is expected to be operational by next week, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Archie Gamboa said Thursday.

“In the Philippine National Police, ang target ko hopefully by next week, we will be opening up our own RT/PCR (reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction) purely for policemen. Medyo maliit lang yung capacity nito pero sinadya ko to, ginastusan namin para ito sa mga kapulisan,” Gamboa told ANC.

PNP chief Gen. Archie Gamboa

(In the Philippine National Police, my target hopefully next week, we will open our own RT/PCR facility purely for policemen. It is a bit small but I decided to do this and we spent money for the police force.)

Gamboa said the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa City will still train PNP medical officers on COVID-19 testing procedures.

“RITM will conduct now the training for PNP. I think there are two yung, molecular and biosafety,” he said.

Gamboa a separate building at the PNP Headquarters in Quezon City will house the testing facility.

“Nagtayo kami ng isa pang separate building just for that for RT/PCR,” he said.

(We established a separate building just for the RT/PCR testing facility)

Gamboa also explained that the testing facility will cover  police officers assigned in the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) region, Metro Manila and Central Luzon.

The COVID-19 facility for policemen is expected to conduct around 40 tests a day.

GSG