CITY OF TABUK, Kalinga, – The Tabuk City COVID-19 RT-PCR Testing Laboratory is now accredited by the Department of Health (DOH) with the issuance of its License To Operate received by the City Health Office last June 16.
The city local government unit had blessed the facility last Wednesday, June 23, and immediately started operation.
Mayor Darwin C. Estranero said the P15 million project funded under the city’s COVID-19 response program is the first LGU-operated RT-PCR or Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction testing laboratory in the North.
The facility scales-up the city’s COVID-19 response with its capacity to test 96 swab samples in one and one half hours. Swab test results are released immediately compared before when patients need to wait for three days since specimens had to be brought to laboratories outside the province.
The test lab is located near the city COVID-19 temporary treatment and monitoring facility in Barangay Agbannawag for efficient management of patients. Medical technologists and other health staff deployed here are DOH-trained.
Estranero said the facility will serve patients not only of Tabuk but from other municipalities and those outside the province.
The testing laboratory is valid to operate from June 15 to December 31, 2021.**JDP/LL-PIA CAR, Kalinga
