Manila opens drive-thru COVID test center

Within two hours of yesterday’s launch, more than 50 individuals, riding in cars, and on motorcycles and even bicycles, availed of the test

The City on Manila yesterday opened its first drive-thru COVID-19 testing facility at the service road in front of the Bonifacio Monument beside city hall.

Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso and Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna oversaw the first motorists who availed of the service.

The drive-thru’s free tests could serve at least 16,000 motorists, both Manila and non-residents, weekly, using machines that are said to yield far more conclusive results than the ordinary rapid test kits and with reliability similar to that of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) machines.

The mayor said interested motorists will just have to fill out a form, present an ID and then wait for the assigned medical personnel to get their blood sample, which will then be analyzed, using two newly-purchased Architect i1000 SR immunoassay machines from Abbott Laboratories.

Within two hours of yesterday’s launch, more than 50 individuals, riding in cars, and on motorcycles and even bicycles, availed of the test.

Four medical technologists will man the initial operations which, eventually, will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

Based on the information a motorist supplies, he will be contacted and informed about the test result as soon as it becomes available, which is just within 24 hours or less.

He guaranteed all information, including the results, will be treated with utmost confidentiality.

“If the result is positive, the person concerned will be given instructions on what to do. Depending on his condition and the symptoms he manifests, he may be taken by the city government to the nearest quarantine facility for the purpose of isolating him, so as not to infect his family and community members and then treated accordingly,” Domagoso explained.

“So many of our countrymen are getting stressed thinking if they’ve been infected with the virus. To be able to give them peace of mind, we offer this new test system. This is free for all Manileños,” he explained.

The mayor added the machines combine the best features of rapid and swab tests, since they offer 99.6 specificity and 100 percent sensitivity.

“We are thus doing away with the ‘false negative’ and ‘false positive’ results that usually accompany the use of rapid test kits,” he said.

Unlike PCR machines that are pieces of sensitive equipment, the Architect machines can be stored in ordinary laboratory rooms.