The Valladolid District Hospital molecular laboratory in Negros Occidental is expected to start its operation by the second or third week of January, Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz II said they are now processing the permit from the Department of Health.
It is the second COVID-19 laboratory to be managed by the provincial government, next only to the Teresita Lopez Jalandoni Provincial Hospital in Silay City.
“It is now 90 percent ready. The health personnel have been trained at the TLJPH molecular laboratory,” Diaz said.
He said that the new facility, which has an estimated testing capacity of 1,000 specimens daily, will only use a minimum number of personnel as most of the work will be “robotic”.
Meanwhile, Diaz said that the provincial government is now consolidating its savings for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines.
By the first week of February, he said, they may able to determine the amount of savings from Personal Services, Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses, as well as other programs and projects that had been cancelled.
Aside from the savings, the province also has other sources of fund for the purchase of vaccines.
Vice Governor Jeffrey Ferrer expressed support to the move of the provincial government to purchase COVID-19 vaccines, after a new variant of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus was detected in the United Kingdom. – GB
