UP scientist who developed low-cost COVID-19 detection kits is looking for hospitals capable of running tests

University of the Philippines scientist Dr. Raul Destura, head of the team that invented the low-cost coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) detection kits, is now looking for hospitals and laboratories that are capable of running the tests.

Destura, who is from the Philippine Genome Center and UP National Institutes of Health, shared on Facebook, Wednesday, that he is in search of hospitals with PCR diagnostic capability, an equipment vital to running the COVID-19 tests.

According to UP Diliman's National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (NIMBB), the search is in preparation for the Department of Health (DOH)'s "expanded testing that will be implemented when more test kits arrive from South Korea, China and the UP-National Institutes of Health."

Aside from hospitals and laboratories with qPCR machines, the kits will also need trained personnel to properly conduct the expanded testing, said Dr. Reynaldo Garcia from NIMBB after he was contacted by DOH for help. 

The locally made COVID-19 test kit is reported to be six times cheaper than its foreign counterparts, according to the Department of Science and Technology.

Once the field tests of the local test kit comes out positive, DOH shared that they will roll it out to other hospitals along with the incoming 5,000-10,000 kits donated by South Korea and 10,000 kits donated by China. 

The Philippines, under a state of calamity since Monday, has 217 confirmed cases and 17 deaths due to COVID-19, according to DOH Thursday. — LA, GMA News

If you know any information about laboratories with PCR diagnostic capability, email talk2us@manila-Healthtek.com