San Miguel opens COVID-19 testing facility
San Miguel Corporation (SMC) has opened Better World Edsa, a facility that houses its own stateof-the-art COVID-19 RT-PCR testing laboratory which aims to test some 70,000 employees in its network.
The firm said in a statement that the facility will unburden the health sector and help ensure a safe return-to-work strategy in the coming months.
The Better World Edsa testing facility has the capacity to process 4,000 tests per day, expandable to 12,000. This is seen to help the government reach testing capacity to 50,000 per day as well as ease the strain on the country’s testing and processing facilities.
It is equipped with two sets of RT-PCR machines and fully automated nucleic acid extraction systems or NATCH. A set is comprised of two PCR machines and one NATCH. This makes the facility one of the most advanced private testing laboratories in the country.
“Two weeks into the quarantine last March, we included the testing laboratory as part of our business continuity plan. We procured the machines, and had personnel undergo training for its full-scale operations,” said SMC President Ramon S. Ang.
He added that, “With this facility, we are taking responsibility for testing our own employees and unburdening our health system.”
Ang noted that, “It also helps make our operations more resilient to disruptions brought about by the virus. Lesser disruptions on our operations will allow us to better contribute to the immediate recovery of the economy.”
According to Ang, the company aims to bring back 50 percent of its workforce in the coming weeks.
Prior to the shift to general community quarantine, SMC had already commenced testing its employees, prioritizing those in its food manufacturing facilities, to further stabilize the country’s food supply in the coming months.
Ang reiterated that companies should help the government with testing and reduce reliance on the already burdened system.
“It’s our contribution the government’s effort to continuously test and trace COVID-19 transmission and contain it, as well as enable early intervention or treatment to save lives,” he said.
Ang pointed out that, “The country and the rest of the world are still feeling the effects of the pandemic on the economy, particularly on businesses and loss of jobs for many of our fellowmen. We have to take more aggressive steps in addressing the virus and make sure that no more lives and livelihood are lost further.”