Four patients admitted to the Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC) were the first to be tested as the government-run regional hospital opened its COVID-19 testing laboratory yesterday morning.
All the four patients tested negative for COVID-19, a process that only took about an hour in the GeneXpert laboratory of NMMC that has been equipped for real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction tests (RT-PCR). None of the tested patients are from Cagayan de Oro.
Dr. Bernard Julius Rocha, NMMC Medical Specialist II, said the laboratory was made possible through the efforts of Department of Health (DOH) regional director Dr. Adriano Suba-an and Dr. Jose Chan, NMMC hospital director. The two doctors worked to make NMMC get its license and accreditation as a COVID-19 testing facility.
Dr. Rocha said the NMMC already has 1,740 Xpert Xpress cartridges for its testing machine. Meanwhile, the DOH regional office and the Polymedic Medical Plaza are expected to start operating their COVID-19 testing facilities soon.
Dr. Ian Christian Gonzales, head of the Infectious Diseases Cluster of DOH-10 said a team from the World Health Organization (WHO) is expected to arrive on Saturday to train 24 medical technologists who would do the laboratory work.
Two PCR machines were acquired by the administration of Mayor Oscar Moreno for the DOH-10 COVID-19 laboratory. The city government is acquiring a third PCR machine. (AGP/Photo by Nic Anches/CIO)
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