RITM, subnational labs operating 16 hours daily —DOH

Round-the-clock work is in place at testing laboratories across the Philippines in an effort to efficiently detect coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), according to Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Tuesday.

In a virtual conference, Vergeire said the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine and other government-run testing facilities have doubled their operating hours.

"They are already running 16 hours a day ngayon. Hindi lang RITM ang nagsi-16 hours, halos lahat ng ating subnational laboratories ng government, they already extended their hours of work to 16 hours," Vergeire said.

"'Yung extension of hours of RITM pinag-uusapan nila ngayon dahil nga po doon sa current numer of people nila na umiikot, titingnan nila kung paano nila gagawin yung 24 hours," she added.

On Monday night, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Department of Science and Technology (DOST) to operate 24 hours a day and strengthen their work force amid the health crisis.

Meanwhile, Vergeire said that the operation of the Philippine Genome Center, the scheduled opening of new accredited laboratories for COVID-19 testing, and the arrival of additional GeneXpert cartridges will help the government achieve the daily testing capacity of 8,000 by the end of April.

The upcoming opening of a huge laboratory in Central Luzon with a testing capacity of up to 5,000 per day is also being seen as a game changer.

According to the Department of Health, there are over 76,000 individuals who have undergone COVID-19 test in the Philippines as of April  25. --KBK, GMA News