Lack of test kits hampering testing in Baguio, E. Visayas

BAGUIO CITY – The city government admitted that the lack of available test kits at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC), the accredited sub-national testing center in Northern Luzon, has been hampering the conduct of mass testing of frontlinersso that it could properly assess the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation in the city.

Mayor Benjamin Magalong said that, based on the latest information from the BGHMC, it has a backlog of more than 1,500 confirmatory tests from the different parts of Northern Luzon where some 25 percent of the same are tests of city residents.

He said that aside from this backlog, the 4,000 reverse transmission polymerase chain reaction-based (PCR) test kits donated to the city government by SM foundation were still with the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM) because of some alleged lacking consumables.

Magalong claimed that even the Department of Health (DOH) has been having difficulty sourcing out PCRbased test kits amidst the clamor for mass testing.

The city government is targeting to test some 36 percent of the city’s 370,000 population, and was to initially start the mass testing of some 200 frontliners daily starting April 27.

Meanwhile, the first eight swab samples in the realtime transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) at the Eastern Visayas Regional COVID19 Testing Center (EVRTC) all yielded negative results for COVID-19.

The testing conducted on Monday,

May 11, included the second sample of Patient EV 14 from Catbalogan City.

Although EVRTC has the capability to process 700 samples per day, it has an initial testing capacity of 90 specimens in a day, and only has 300 start-up testing kits.

DOH Region 8 Director Minerva Molon said due to the limited testing kits, the initial testing would prioritize COVID-19 suspects coming from areas with confirmed cases such as Tarangan, Samar with 15 cases andCatbalogan City with one case.

The official likewise admitted that while Eastern Visayas now has a testing center, it cannot yet conduct mass testings.

She added that EVRTC will not yet accept specimens directly from the local government units (LGUs).

“All sample specimens from the LGUs and other hospitals except the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC) will be coursed through the DOH-EV CHD Surveillance Unit for recording and checking on the packaging. No walk-in testing will be performed in EVRMC,” she maintained.