Manila Bulletin
Mayor Sarah says 4 more COVID-19 testing centers in Davao region in the works
Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte stated that while the local government plans to increase its COVID-19 testing efforts, it will not implement mass testing.
She explained that the city lacks the necessary preparations for mass testing, particularly due to the unreliability of rapid test kits for such a scale.
The mayor expressed concern that false negatives from rapid tests could lead to infected individuals being sent back into the community.
Although the Southern Philippines Medical Center's (SPMC) testing capacity is inadequate, the city is working to establish three testing centers.
One of these centers is a partnership between Davao del Norte and the University of the Philippines (UP), while another is a private laboratory being assisted by the city government.
A third facility has been identified and requires renovations, pending approval from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) and the Department of Health (DOH).
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