“We are really in need of additional testing centers,” Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas stressed at his press briefing on Friday.
Treñas noted that as the city and the Western Visayas region open up, more COVID-19 positive cases could be expected.
“The DOH (Department of health) should report out faster test results,” the mayor said in reaction to the testing backlog at the Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC) sub-national laboratory.
An additional RNA testing machine is expected at the WVMC lab next week and about the same time that Qualimed Hospital would begin operating its testing laboratory, Treñas said.
He pointed out that there are enough testing kits as well as isolation facilities for probable and suspected COVID-19 cases in the region.
Mayor Treñas said that the city government has a standing Memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the Department of education to use various classrooms as isolation facilities.
The facilities are at the Iloilo Central Elementary School for 85 persons or locally stranded individuals (LSIs) and returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs), and for 60 persons at the La Paz Elem. School.
At Baluarte ES the isolation facilities could be available for 96 persons, for 152 persons at Mandurriao ES, for 40 persons at Molo ES, and for 42 persons at the Jubilee hall.
The mayor disclosed that there are 8 nurses and 6 utilities at the Jubilee hall, while 3 medical doctors, 18 nurses and 5 utilities are assigned at the St. Therese Hospital.*
