RITM receives P46M worth of lab equipment from JICA

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has provided P46 million worth of laboratory equipment to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), in a bid to assist the Philippines in its recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The equipment include a pharmaceutical refrigerator, an automated immunoassay analyzer, and a deep freezer which seek to boost the RITM's capacity in detecting and treating COVID-19 cases.

The equipment was turned over on Thursday, March 24, at the Department of Health (DOH) with Japan Ambassador to the Philippines Koshikawa Kazuhiko and JICA Philippines Chief Representative Sakamoto Takema.

"The assistance complements our other support to Philippine COVID-19 recovery efforts including the grant finance and technical cooperation for cold chain storage and logistics as well as rapid antigen test kits to be distributed to the [DOH] in the coming weeks," Sakamoto said in an emailed statement.

"JICA hopes to make a certain contribution to a resilient healthcare system in the Philippines," he added.

JICA also earlier granted a JPY50-billion COVID-19 Crisis Response Emergency Support Loan, and another JPY50-billion JICA Post-Disaster Standby Loan Phase 2 to the Philippines, equivalent to a total of P44 billion.

The agency also earlier provided laboratory equipment for testing, diagnoses, and treatment of the San Lazaro Hospital.

It currently has about 60 ongoing development cooperation projects with the Philippines, with some JPY260-billion worth of programs in the country. —Jon Viktor D. Cabuenas/KBK, GMA News