Davao City: The Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) has now been certified by the Regional Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) to independently test for COVID-19.
The Chief of Hospital for the SPMC Dr. Leopoldo Vega explained how there is a current surge in COVID-19 cases in the Davao Region because of the capability of the said medical facility to test for the said virus.
“Since we can run almost 60 tests on average per day, we were able to increase our results in terms of positive cases kaya dumami bigla,” Dr. Vega said.
Currently, SPMC has a daily sampling average of 70-80 samples and this will effectively bolster the efforts of health authorities in addressing the spread of COVID-19 within the Davao Region.
“We are able to give the results in a matter of 24 or less than 48 hours,” Dr. Vega said.
Apart from testing patients under investigation (PUI), the SPMC is also constantly testing its medical health professionals to protect patients from contamination and to also ensure that medical health professionals can also be quarantined immediately in the event of contracting COVID-19.
“We must be able to test all front liners that they’re negative for COVID-19 in other words we are doing testing to our front liners right now at 50 front liners per day,” Dr. Vega said. (PIA XI/K. Caro)
