Benitez had assured that not only will testing kits worth P35 million be provided by the national government, but also remarked that Michael Dino, Presidential Assistant for the Visayas, has offered a laboratory in Cebu as contingency should our testing facilities be overloaded.

So far, we are almost assured of the capacity to hit the 10,000 target for mass testing

Provincial Consultant and former congressman Alfredo Benitez on assuring the finality of mass testing & lockdown, retrieved from Teresa D. Ellera of Sunstar Bacolod

Senator Richard Gordon had also been tapped for PhilHealth coverage of the Philippine Red Cross Molecular Laboratory.

Concern from Health Professionals

Dr. Julius Drilon, head of the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH) has questioned the planned mass testing that aims to target 10,000 symptomatic COVID-19 individuals, close contacts, and vulnerable sectors during the province’s and city’s “Timeout Weekend” scheduled for August 28 to 31, 2020.

According to a radio interview with Drilon, the former Congressman and provincial capitol chief planned coordination with them in planning for the mass testing, however, a formal meeting had not been made yet last Monday when the plan was announced.

The following concerns were raised by the chief head of the regional hospital:

  1. Officials should consider the capacity of the different machines used by the five laboratories in the province (each kind of which utilize a different kind of swab).
  2. Combined, all five machines can only process at maximum around 1,700 tests per day
  3. Ample capacity to accommodate COVID-19 positive individuals and how contact tracing will be conducted
  4. Additional medical technologists and encoders needed in order to hasten the release of test results.
  5. CLMMRH currently has a lack of supply of protective equipment