Gama Foods turns over RT-PCR machine to NMMC

A home-grown food company has turned over one reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction machine to the state-run Northern Mindanao Medical Center at the city hall, late this afternoon.

Gama Foods Corporation head Mark Chang said the company hopes that the donated testing machine will help the city in its fight against the coronavirus disease outbreak.

“It is our pleasure to serve the city where we started for the benefit of everyone. I hope this will boost our fighting chance against the disease. I am very confident that this would service the residents of the city and of the region,” Chang said.

NMMC chief Dr. Jose Chan welcomed the donation as this would increase the testing capacity of the hospital.

“Nagpasalamat kami sa tabang ninyo sa atong hospital. Currently, we are doing 10 tests per day. In the coming days, posible na nga 20 to 30 tests per day na atong mabuhat,” Chan said.

He said that the national testing target by the end of this month is 30,000 tests per day.

“Sa pagkakaron, 15,000 tests a day pa 'ta nationwide. Layo pa kaayo 'ta,” said Chan.

Mayor Oscar Moreno, for his part, thanked the Chang family for the donation.

“This is a breakthrough. A milestone not only for Cagayan de Oro but for Northern Mindanao and the upper half of Mindanao. This gives us a better handle of the situation. Hopefully, boost the confidence level sa atong residents,” he said.

Moreno said the city government will also purchase two text extractors to complement the test machines at the NMMC and the testing laboratory in the Department of Health-10 compound.

Ian Christian Gonzales, chief of the Infectious and Communicable Diseases Unit of the Department of Health-10, said that he hopes that more private companies would follow suit.

“The DOH would like to thank the Chang family and the Gama Foods Corp. We hope that this will set an example of how the private sector helps the government. With the addition of more machines, we can test more patients,” Gonzales said.

He added that when the six machines would be in full operation, Cagayan de Oro will have the biggest testing capacity outside the National Capital Region.

“Ang naka tsada ining machines sa Gama Foods ug city government kay pwede gamiton bisan unsa nga brand sa test kits. Unlike sa Gene Expert sa NMMC nga isa ra ka particular brand ang magamit nga test kit,” Gonzales pointed out. (Cong B. Corrales)