4 labs certified for COVID-19 testing

The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) has certified four sub-national laboratories to conduct COVID-19 testing and release their own results.

These laboratories are Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center, San Lazaro Hospital, Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, and Southern Philippines Medical Center.

With full certification, these labs no longer need to send positive cases to RITM for validation.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire stated that these sub-national laboratories have been conducting 80 to 160 tests daily since last week.

She anticipates an increase in the number of tests conducted by these labs in the coming weeks.

Each of the certified laboratories was initially supplied with 5,000 test kits and has the capacity to perform between 80 to 160 tests daily.