THE Negros Occidental Provincial Government announced Monday, May 25, that the first biolab or the Covid-19 Testing Center at Teresita Locsin Jalandoni Provincial Hospital is now ready after Monday's dry run.
"The Teresita Jalandoni Provincial Hospital Molecular Laboratory is finally ready to operate. We have two PCR machines and one Automatic Extractor, plus we are expecting the arrival of another PCR unit from DOH. The Molecular Lab staff did our first ever test run yesterday using the available control kits. It was very successful," Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said Monday night, May 25.
"We hope to be able to serve the Negrense as soon as we pass the proficiency testing to be given by RITM this week. We are also awaiting the approval of the application we sent for our GenExpert laboratory," he added.
Lawyer Rayfrando Diaz, provincial administrator, said the operation of the biolab is timely at the height of the influx of returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who are expected to arrive in the province this week.
He said all Negrense returning OFWs will undergo the PRC test and if they will be negative, they will immediately be allowed to return to their respective homes and would no longer undergo the 14-day mandatory quarantine.
"We are not even at the first wave of Covid-19. Because of this biolab, we would immediately determine results and act appropriately any possible situation," Diaz said.
The biolab will be the first operational Covid-19 testing center in the province.
With the operation of the biolab in the province, results of swab specimen taken from suspected persons will be released faster, as it would no longer be submitted to Iloilo at the Western Visayas Medical Center.
In a related development, Dr. Zeaphard Caelian, head of the Provincial Disaster Management Program, said the provincial quarantine facilities in E.B. Magalona and Mambukal Resort in Murcia are already full as of May 25.
Capitol reported that 362 OFWs are expected to arrive Monday night.
This after the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) through Undersecretary Epimaco Densing issued a memorandum addressed to all regional directors, governors, city and municipal mayors and chiefs of police that starting May 25 to 27, the more than 24,000 OFWs in Metro Manila shall be moved at an estimate of 8,000 per day using various modes of transport -- air, land and sea.
"We may have to inform you the transits without the names and shall have to advise the LGUs to accept as long as the required documents are shown by each OFWs. If the OFW has incomplete or no docs on hand, the LGU may just have to quarantine him or her or PCR tested then isolated while waiting for the results," the memo stated.
It added that such process includes OFWs shall be fetched from their hotel or quarantine facility and accompanied by the Philippine Coast Guard or Owwa and shall be brought to PITX and the NAIA Terminal 2 for them to board their respective transportation, which have been arranged by the government; the OFWs should present copy of their quarantine certificate from the Bureau of Quarantine or that they are included in the masterlist of the PCG of those who tested negative for Covid-19; and a one-stop-shop shall be set up by the different concerned agencies to assist the OFWs at the airport, while awaiting their scheduled flights.
The DILG OFW desk shall take the lead in coordinating with the respective local government units concerned.