Davao City: Davao City Mayor Inday Sara Duterte bared the city government is helping three medical care facilities get accreditation as testing centers for “diagnosis and identification” of suspected Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) patients.
“We are waiting for papers atong isa ka private nga laboratory nga willing mag set-up diri sa Davao City ug COVID-19 testing facility and ginatabangan nato sila nga i-push ang ilahang papers (We are waiting for the papers of one private laboratory willing to set up a Covid-19 testing facility in Davao City and we are helping them),” the mayor said.
Mayor Sara also named the Davao Doctors Hospital and a city government-run laboratory.
The three centers will augment the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) which is one of the 17 medical facilities recognized by the National Reference Laboratory as a satellite laboratory in the Philippines and the only one for Mindanao. SPMC can only accommodate 80 samples per day.
For the city government-run laboratory for Covid-19, Mayor Sara said she will utilize the funds from the Bayanihan grant of the national government. The proposed budget ordinance will be submitted to the Sangguniang Panlungsod next week.
We have money from the Bayanihan grant which will be submitted to SP next week. “Nag allot ta didto og (We allotted there for COVID-19 testing facility laboratory for Davao City,” she added.
Mayor Sara also said Davao City will use the model of sister-city Marikina for the establishment of Covid-19 laboratory.
“Atoang gigamit na model is ang Marikina laboratory. We reached out to Marikina and they are helping us, guiding us paunsa nato ma set-up ang government unit COVID-19 testing laboratory (We will use the Marikina laboratory as our model. We have reached out to Marikina and they are helping us, guiding us how to set up the Covid-19 laboratory,” she said.
The Marikina Covid-19 test center has been completed and it is in the final stage of getting certification as testing center from the Department of Health (DoH). CIO