An increase in the daily testing capacity is seen in the coming days following the accreditation of a private testing facility for COVID-19.
The Davao City One World Diagnostic Center, Inc. is the latest private testing facility accredited to test samples. It will unclog the state-run Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC), which currently has a testing capacity of 250 to 300 individuals.
Johann Go, sales representative of Davao One World Diagnostic Center, said that, for now, the center can accommodate 200 tests per day since they are still waiting for more real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) machine to be delivered.
“When the machines are here, we can accommodate between 1,000 and 1,200 tests per day,” he said.
On Monday’s broadcast of the Davao City Disaster Radio, Mayor Sara Duterte said the private facility has passed the five-stage accreditation of the Department of Health (DOH) and is now operational.
“We already have two that are in stage five, which means that they can start their operation. One is SPMC, the one that we have from the beginning and the newest addition, Davao One World Diagnostic Center, Inc,” she said.
Mayor Sara said that two other facilities – the Davao Doctors Hospital and DOH Tuberculosis Center are currently in the third stage of accreditation.
Meanwhile, the city-owned Los Amigos Health Center is waiting for the approval of the permit to construct its testing facility. It is eyed to be operational in July this year.
In addition to more testing capacity, Davao City also has 11 isolation facilities. Of the number, nine are for COVID-19 patients and two are for the health workers to be quarantined. Overall, the city has a capacity of 448 beds, of which 348 are currently occupied.
As of June 1, Davao City has a total of 148 active positive cases of COVID-19, with 129 recoveries and 29 deaths.
