ILOILO City Government is eyeing the operation of a temporary Covid-19 laboratory at Alternative Learning System (ALS) building in Barangay San Pedro in Molo district by middle of September.
Mayor Jerry Treñas said the alternative facility will address urgent needs of faster releasing of results of Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test to efficiently manage cases of coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
"What we can do is to provide this temporary laboratory for the city so that we will be able to test more. Our new laboratory is still undergoing construction works," Treñas said.
"I am happy because we will have additional testing laboratories by September 15. Another one is the Metro Iloilo Hospital and Medical Center," he added.
Treñas said immediate release of RT-PCR test results has fallen short as the Western Visayas Medical Center-Sub National Laboratory (WVMC-SNL) has been overwhelmed by specimens.
In its latest advisory, WVMC-SNL stated that specimens received from August 21-30 are pending.
Covid Team spokesperson Jeck Conlu noted some 3,000 backlogs of RT-PCR tests as of last week.
Releasing of RT-PCR tests encountered delays earlier following infection of several medical technologists manning the lab that caters to whole of Panay Island. (PR)