QC inks partnerships for Covid test results

THE Quezon City government has partnered with the Chinese General Hospital and the Philippine Genome Center to speed up the processing and release of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) test results from its community-based testing.

“As we increase our testing capacity, we need more laboratories that will process the specimen and speed up the identification of positive Covid-19 cases in our city,” QC Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit head Rolly Cruz said in a statement.

He added that around 10,000 or more tests were targeted to be done by the end of the month.

Under the agreement, the Chinese General Hospital and Medical Center would accept and process 50 tests per day with a turnaround time of two to three days.

The Philippine Genome Center can also process swab tests gathered from the community-based testing centers.

It recently received 2,000 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test kits donated to the city government by San Miguel Corp. (SMC) and 13,000 rapid testing kits from Bloomberg, Ayala Corp. and other anonymous donors led by Project ARK (Antibody rapid test kits).

“The rapid testing serves as guide for city health officials. Anybody can do 10,000 tests, including us, but at the end of the day we still rely on PCR test, which is considered the gold standard worldwide,” Cruz said.

Based from the validated cases, Cruz stressed that the “intensified” and “timely” testing had contributed to the city’s recovery rate of 38.81 percent as of May 18.

Joseph Juico, project manager of the local testing, welcomed the addition of partner laboratories, saying it would “greatly” contribute to the city’s aim to flatten the curve.

“Partnering with laboratories is important. What QC is after is not just test, test, test but we are after results, results, results. The quicker the turnaround time is, the better,” he added.