RITM accredits Lanao del Norte laboratory for COVID-19 testing

LINAMON, Lanao del Norte — Swab tests for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases will soon be processed here after the Department of Health (DOH) approved the province-funded molecular biology laboratory at the Kapatagan provincial hospital for COVID-19 testing.

Lanao del Norte Governor Imelda ‘Angging’ Quibranza-Dimaporo said the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine of the DOH approved the testing laboratory’s license to operate on Saturday, September 12.

“The DOH-RITM has given the molecular biology laboratory of Lanao del Norte license to operate after it posted a 100 per cent proficiency test result for SARS-CoV2 detection through the Real-Time PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) machine,” Quibranza-Dimaporo said. “We gladly inform the people that the provincial COVID-19 testing laboratory will start operation soon,” she added.

Funded by the Bayanihan Grant Fund that President Duterte handed down to the province, the P30 million facility which was conceptualized in March at the height of the lockdown was completed in August this year.

“This essential laboratory will help Lanao del Norte curb the spread of COVID- 19 by early detection through testing of suspected individuals and isolating them for appropriate medical treatment,” the governor said.

She said it took months for the province to comply with the stringent requirements of DOH-RITM, which included the specification of its building, the quality of the medical equipment and machines being purchased to the series of training that personnel had to undergo to operate the testing laboratory.

The governor said the project would cut down waiting time for the results of COVID-19 testing in the time of the pandemic.

Lilibeth Galbines, the chief medical technologist at the province-run testing laboratory, said testing would start at the laboratory as soon as Governor Dimaporo would give her go signal to start.

As of September 11, Lanao del Norte posted a total of 370 COVID-19 cases, of which 243 have recovered. Of the 124 COVID-19 cases which remained active, 92 cases were brought about by local transmission. At least three COVID-19 patients were monitored to have died in the province.

JE