SMC donates testing booths, kits to all NCR LGUs

SAN Miguel Corp. has teamed up with 17 local government units in Metro Manila to put up more testing booths in areas with high density of Covid-19 cases as well as donate test kits to allow the poorest communities access to free testing.

SMC president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang said the booths would be scattered strategically around areas in most dire need “so our local officials can easily ask people to get tested.”

This, he said, will complement the national government’s expanded testing efforts, which is focused on building “mega swabbing centers” in key, major commercial areas to test, initially, returning overseas Filipino workers.

“This is the best way we can help our local governments ramp up or expand their testing capacity — in particular, for poorer barangays and communities, even as national government takes care of building our mega swabbing centers, which for now will be focused on our returning OFWs,” said Ang.

At the same time, Ang said SMC is moving ahead with plans to put up its own testing laboratory to test its 70,000 employees and extended workforce to help government in its efforts to test aggressively and gradually reopen the economy.

“Apart from donating more test kits, we are increasing donation of high-capacity testing machines to help significantly increase the number of tests that can be processed daily to contain the spread of the virus,” Ang said.

SMC is also donating three more sets of testing equipment, consisting of RT-PCR machines and automated RNA extraction machines, to specific health facilities and institutions in Metro Manila, including the National Center for Mental Health in its home city of Mandaluyong.