City gov’t eyeing 3 testing centers

THE CITY government is pushing for the operation of three medical establishments as testing centers for diagnosis and identification of suspected coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients.

In an interview with Davao City Disaster RadioThursday, Mayor Sara Duterte said the city government is helping three medical facilities get accreditation so that these can as testing centers for infectious diseases such as COVID-19.

“We are waiting for the papers of one private laboratory willing to set up a Covid-19 testing facility in Davao City and we are

helping them,” she said.

Another center is that of the Davao Doctors Hospital, while the other one is the plan of the city government to put up its own using the fund from the Bayanihan to Heal As One Act.

"We have money from the Bayanihan grant which will be submitted to SP next week,” she said, adding that the plan is to pattern the testing center with that of Marikina City, its sister city.

“We will use the Marikina laboratory as our model. We have reached out to Marikina and they are helping us, guiding us how to set up the COVID-19 laboratory," she said.

These new center will ease the burden of the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC), the only accredited national reference laboratory in the city.

Health experts in the city have been pushing for the establishment of testing centers in the city or for existing testing center to ge accredited. By Samantha T. Burgos and Warren Elijah E. Valdez