THE Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC) is expected to start its testing using the GeneXpert on Wednesday, May 20, following the arrival of the cartridges needed for the testing, medical specialist Dr. Bernard Rocha said.
Rocha, on Monday, May 18, said the 1,140 cartridges arrived at the NMMC at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, May 17.
He added that some of the staff in their laboratory will be briefed on the protocols before they could start processing the swabs from suspected Covid patients.
They will also have to undergo the online demonstration for testing which will be supervised by the experts from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).
"Naa na gyud ang testing dinhi sa Northern Mindanao," Rocha said.
As to who will be tested, Rocha said they are still going through the guidelines provided by the Department of Health.
The NMMC, with the use of the GeneXpert machine, can conduct four tests per hour. With the maximum operation of 12 hours a day, the NMMC can conduct a total of 48 tests per day.
Meanwhile, NMMC's telekonsulta is still in operation, with the Globe lines expected to come out this week.
"We are going to come out with the Globe lines this week para maka avail mo sa among telekonsulta and the other specialties ug mapadala namo diretso ang inyong mga prescriptions if needed or warranted kung kinahanglan makita ang pasyente or kinahanglan gyud mo-consult sa amo sa hospital," Rocha said.