THE Department of Health (DOH) in Region 10 is set to start this week dry run Covid-19 laboratory tests using a machine given by the city government while the Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC) also plans to do its own tests using its own equipment.
The city government-donated machine will be set up at a facility prepared by the DOH regional office in Barangay Carmen. The equipment, the first of its kind in Cagayan de Oro and the entire Region 10, can be used to perform an average of 100 tests a day.
The polymerase chain reaction machine is similar to what is being used by the sub-national Covid-19 testing laboratory at the Southern Mindanao Medical Center (SPMC) in Davao City, according to Dr. William Bernardo, the head of the city government’s COVID-19 operations center’s logistics cluster.
The machine, Bio Rad CFX96 Touch Real-Time PCR Detection System, is considered the gold standard for COVID-19 laboratory equipment. It comes with a CFX Maestro software, CFX96 optical module, C1000 Touch Thermal Cycler, a computer, and printer, among others.
Bernardo said his group ordered the testing machine as early as March as directed by Mayor Oscar S. Moreno just as the government responded to the public health crisis in the country with quarantine measures. He said its delivery took time because of the high demand for the testing machines, and many others placed orders ahead of the city government. It was delivered on May 4.
Dr. Bernardo said the delivery was just in time for the scheduled proficiency testing at the new Covid-19 testing laboratory that passed the Bio-Safety Level 2 requirement of the DOH.
This week’s scheduled proficiency testing is the 4th stage of the accreditation process for the laboratory. Once completed, the laboratory would be allowed to proceed to the 5th and final stage which is the implementation of mass testings at full scale.
Dr. David Mendoza, DOH assistant regional director, said the laboratory and its staff can operate two more similar machines so that an average of 300 tests can be made in the city once the facility’s operations go full blast.
Health officials are expecting another machine to be provided by DOH, and Mayor Moreno had another one ordered.
The DOH-10 laboratory is just one of three Covid-19 testing facilities inspected by the DOH and the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in the city. The other testing facilities are at the NMMC and Polymedic Medical Plaza.
NMMC, meanwhile, is planning to do tests this week using another machine called Gene Xpert, an older machine that it has used for tuberculosis cases. Doctors, however, said that while the Gene Xpert machine can be used for fast Covid-19 testing, it has limitations like it can be used only with a specific type of cartridges and testing kits. This prompted the city government to order another polymerase chain reaction machine to boost NMMC’s Covid-19 testing capability.
In late March, DOH regional director Adriano Subaan first announced that the Tuberculosis Reference Center at the DOH regional office was being converted into a Covid-19 testing laboratory for the benefit of Cagayan de Oro and other cities and provinces in Region 10. By April 7, an inspection team from the RITM and World Health Organization (WHO) came over to check and start the accreditation process.
“We are fast-tracking everything. The documentary requirement, the physical requirement sa building, as well as the request for the RT-PCR equipment, cartridges for the Gene XPert equipment in NMMC… We have to do that because we have to do a large-scale mass testing because that is part of our DITR strategic plan; the detect, isolate, treat and re-integrate,” Dr. Subaan said.
Subaan also said that based on the guidelines set by the DOH, the prioritization of people to be tested will be risk-based. (Archie Pagayaman/CIO)
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