BAGUIO City Mayor Benjamin Magalong assured the arrival of 80 coronavirus disease (Covid-19) test kits to be used by the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC).

BGHMC is one of the five sub-national Covid-19 testing centers that service Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, and the Cordillera Administrative Regional (CAR).

Aside from the initial 80 test kits, Magalong said 300 more test kits have arrived in Metro Manila and they will be donated to Baguio City aside from gowns to be used by the health services assigned at the BGHMC triage area for Covid-19.

"The good news is we have about 5,000 test kits but since it's different from the initial 100 test kits given by the Department of Health (DOH) to BGHMC, this would still have to be reconfigured because this has a different system or procedure. The PCR machine would have to reconfigure this because of various intricacies which do not have ordinary materials," Magalong said.

Magalong acknowledged that aside from the need for additional test kits, additional personal protective equipment (PPE) to be used by the health service providers is also a priority of the local government unit.

"What is critical right now are the bodysuits for our health workers and I am looking at around 3,000 bodysuits which will be good for at least six weeks and after that, we would need more especially when cases escalates. These bodysuits are disposable because what we are preventing especially for frontliners having direct contact with positive cases is for these bodysuits to be disposable," Magalong said.

For patients who will undergo a testing process for Covid-19, the mayor assured that once a patient becomes a candidate for testing, depending on the prognosis of medical specialists at BGHMC, no financial obligation will be asked from them.