By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga
Bacolod City lone district Rep. Greg Gasataya revealed 5,000 test kits for the coronavirus disease, or Covid-19, will arrive in the Western Visayas today. The delivery was made after members of the House of Representatives, including Gasataya, requested the Department of Health (DOH) to provide test kits for Western Visayas.
The test kits can accommodate about 50,000 specimens for the patients under investigation.
The congressman said the test kits can be utilized for three to six months across the region. In addition, he noted, specimens can now be brought to the Western Visayas Medical Center in Iloilo after the facility was accredited by the DOH as a testing center for Covid-19.
The lawmaker also expects additional supplies to arrive in the region in the coming days.
The Western Visayas has recorded four positive Covid-19 cases with the latest reports from the DOH saying the patients are all recovering.
Earlier, Gasataya, together with seven representatives of Negros Occidental in the House of Representatives, sought intervention by DOH in relation to concerns regarding the virus at Bacolod City’s Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital and the Teresita Locsin Jalandoni Provincial Hospital in Silay City.
Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia earlier issued an urgent appeal to Department of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III for 1,000 UTM, or universal transport medium, swabs.
After citing 11 patients under investigation and 1,123 persons under monitoring in the city, the mayor wrote, “It is quite possible that the actual number of positive cases could be more.”
“Our city has no supply of the ‘swab’ kits,” he noted./DGB, WDJ
Bacolod City lone district Rep. Greg Gasataya revealed 5,000 test kits for Covid-19 will arrive in the Western Visayas today.
Bacolod City lone district Rep. Greg Gasataya revealed 5,000 test kits for Covid-19 will arrive in the Western Visayas today.