Eastern Visayas medical team trains in Cebu for COVID-19 testing
CEBU CITY – A total of 10 medical personnel from Department of Health (DOH) Eastern Visayas completed their three-day COVID-19 proficiency training at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center and DOH Region 7 COVID Laboratory.
This is in preparation for the molecular laboratory set up at the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC) and now waiting for the laboratory accreditation of the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).
The Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV) received the 10 medical personnel composed of one pathologist and nine medical technologists on May 3, 2020.
OPAV facilitated their trip from Ormoc City to Mandaue City as well as arranged for their accommodation and transport for the duration of their training in Cebu City.
The molecular laboratory in Region 8 has been set up in the old EVRMC and has passed Stage 2 of the validation stage in the laboratory accreditation steps of the RITM.
The COVID-19 Proficiency Training of the personnel is the third stage.
After the training, the medical personnel will undertake Stage 4: Proficiency Panel.
Once validated by the RITM, Stage 5 or the full scale implementation will be granted.
On May 6, DOH-8 COVID-19 Testing Team headed by Dr. Kae Parilla went back to Tacloban City after their three-day COVID-19 proficiency training.
The team will be undertaking the COVID19 Proficiency Panel (Stage 4) once they return to EVRMC in Tacloban City.
Once they pass the Proficiency Panel, they will then be granted full accreditation by RITM where they can now perform COVID-19 testing independently and provide official results.
In order to augment the testing capacity of the EVRMC COVID laboratory, the Cristina Lee Dino Foundation through OPAV donated a Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RTPCR) machine, a desktop computer set, and additional 1,000 NPS/OPS swab kits.
The PCR testing of samples from Region 8 is currently being done at VSMMC, but once EVRMC is granted Stage 5 accreditation by RITM, it will now be running its own PCR testing for the entire region.
OPAV thanked Pres. Rodrigo Duterte and Sen. Bong Go for their continued support in the fight of Visayans amid the COVID-19 pandemic. (OPAV)
