BeGH Molecular Lab starts dry run operation

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- The molecular laboratory for the Coronavirus testing in the province will have its dry run this month and expected to be in full operation by January.

Governor Melchor Diclas said in a press briefing on Thursday said the province is now waiting for the certification from the Department of Health for the molecular laboratory at the Benguet General Hospital (BeGH) to operate. The provincial government is also in the process of acquiring the last equipment needed for the molecular laboratory.

BeGH personnel who will be working on the lab already underwent trainings under the DOH through the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine.

Diclas thanked Benguet Legislative Caretaker Congressman Eric Go Yap who personally shelled out his own resources for the construction of the building which houses the molecular laboratory at the BeGH compound. The building was inaugurated in September this year.

Yap also provided the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction ( RT- PCR) and automated extraction machines with the required consumables for the supposed operation of the facility. However, it was loaned to the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center to assist the facility in its testing which became the designated subnational testing laboratory in Northern Luzon.

He purchased new machines which will used by the BeGH lab and let the machines at the BGHMC continue to be used by the city of Baguio and the other nearby regions and provinces.

Diclas said the molecular laboratory will be very helpful for the province of Benguet in the continued fight against the Covid- 19 pandemic particularly improving the testing capacity of the local health facility and ensure that frontliners and the people of Benguet will be tested for Covid-19.