NMMC gets license to do Covid-19 lab tests

THE state-run Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC) has just received its license to operate a Covid-19 testing facility, medical specialist Dr. Bernard Rocha announced this morning.

“We received our license to operate from the Department of Health. We can now do testing for Covid-19. Gahulat na lang ‘mi sa mga cartridges. But I was told that these are on the way,” Rocha said.

He added that Dr. Ian Christian Gonzales, chief of the Infectious and Communicable Diseases Unit of the Department of Health-10, told him that NMMC will have to be the sole testing facility for Northern Mindanao in the meantime.

“NMMC lang muna ang testing for Normin until mahuman ang training (for operating a testing facility) sa mga staff sa DOH ug Polymedic Hospital,” Rocha said.

For his part, Mayor Oscar Moreno said the Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction machine the city hall has purchased has already been sent to the DOH-10 testing laboratory and it will buy another testing machine.

“Na deploy na man gud ni Dr. (William) Bernardo ang RT-PCR machine sa DOH. Mag order ‘ta og isa pa ka machine. I already told Dr. Bernardo to purchase another PCR machine,” Moreno said this morning.

He reiterated that until there is a testing facility the entire Northern Mindanao will still be in the dark as to who has contracted the disease.

“Until there is testing, we will still be in the dark. We will not know who has the virus or not.

Moreno added that by buying an additional testing machine aims to capacitate the testing mechanism, not only of the city but for the whole region.

“Chances are ang Caraga diri na pud magpa test. But let’s not forget that we are one. Eventually, tulo na dayon ang naay testing sa Davao, Zamboanga, and diri sa ato. But that is for the entire island of Mindanao, all the six regions. All of us are in the same boat,” Moreno said. (Cong B. Corrales)