BY LEANDER C. DOMINGO AND JERICO J. KAHULUGAN
TUGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan (August 4)—The Cagayan Valley Medical Center (CVMC) here on Monday inaugurated its molecular laboratory for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) testing that will augment and expand the testing capacity of the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa City, Metro Manila.
Dr. Glenn Matthew Baggao, CVMC chief, said the hospital’s Covid testing center has a newly constructed building with three Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) machines for its operation.
He added that once license to operate from the RITM and the Department of Health (DoH) arrives, the laboratory is expected to operate 24/7 as they already have trained medical technologists to man the testing center.
“Our manpower team was sent for training in Baguio City in previous months and we also have 25 medical technologists funded by the DoH, eight laboratory technicians and 10 administrative assistants who will be manning the laboratory,” Baggao said.
He noted that this is the second Covid-19 testing laboratory in Region 2 (Cagayan Valley) next to the laboratory located at the DoH regional office here that uses GenXpert machine, which is also used tor tuberculosis diagnosis.
“This new laboratory will facilitate the fast release of test results of Covid suspects in the Cagayan Valley and municipalities in neighboring regions,” Baggao said.
Meanwhile, the region recorded 15 more Covid-19 positive cases also on Monday. These are 10 cases from Isabela, three from Cagayan and two from Nueva Vizcaya.
The DoH said these new cases bring to a total recorded number of Covid-19 cases in the region to 342 from the 327 recorded cases as of July 31.