Philippine Red Cross (PRC) Chairman and CEO Senator Richard Gordon said the Philippine Red Cross Logistics Multipurpose Center (PLMC) molecular laboratory underwent a multistage process for COVID-19 lab assessment and received a five-star rating from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) on Dec. 13, 2021.
As the National Reference Laboratory for emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, RITM regularly conducts proficiency testing to ensure and maintain the high-quality performance of independent laboratories.
At the start of the pandemic, when the RITM conducted only 300 tests a day, it was the vision of Gordon to establish molecular laboratories nationwide to ramp up the country’s national testing output.
The PLMC molecular laboratory started operating last April 25, 2020, and is capable of testing 4,000 tests daily.
Since then, thirteen more molecular laboratories have been established throughout the archipelago with a total testing capacity of 60,000 a day.
The PRC is the foremost in testing with more than five million tests, while the next organization has done only over a million.
“We have surpassed the five million mark in COVID-19 testing at hindi tayo titigil. We test to save lives! Napaka-importante ng pagte-test dahil dito natin malalaman kung sino ang mayroon COVID-19. Through testing agad, mahihiwalay natin ang positive individuals upang hindi na makapanghawa pa ng iba,” Gordon said in a news release on Tuesday.
To date, PRC has conducted over 5,056,996 tests nationwide of which 899,119 are from the PLMC molecular laboratory.
Gordon also encourages everyone to get tested regularly to ensure the safety of the people around them this holiday season. (PRC)-rir
