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MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Health (DOH) announced Tuesday that the Philippines now has 30 laboratories across the country that are capable of detecting SARS CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
This comes after DOH approved accreditation by the Asia Hospital and Medical Center and Allegiant Regional Care Hospital to perform real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests.
There are now 28 licensed RT-PCR laboratories in the country, according to DOH, as the Philippine Lung Center and Zamboanga City Medical Center were designated as GeneXpert rapid test facilities.
The GeneXpert test kits can reportedly provide results after 45 minutes, much faster than the RT-PCR test that has a response time of at least 24 hours.
DOH also reported that there are 64 labs that are in Stage 3 and Stage 4 of their five-stage accreditation process.
The government previously said it is considering having a total of 78 COVID-19 testing labs by the end of May to reach its goal of 30,000 tests per day.
Nationwide, there are 11,350 confirmed cases of 2019 coronavirus disease, including 2,106 recoveries and 751 deaths as of May 12.
KGA
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What you need to know about the coronavirus.
For more information about COVID-19, call the DOH hotline: (02) 86517800 local 1149/1150.
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