The Department of Health (DOH) now includes the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) RT- PCR saliva test in all official laboratory results in the Philippines.
PRC, under the leadership of its chairman and CEO Sen. Richard Gordon, is the leading organization for COVID-19 testing. PRC is the only organization approved by the DOH to conduct saliva RT-PCR tests in the country.
The saliva RT-PCR test, which is a cheaper, faster, and non-invasive test for COVID-19, is PCR-based, which is considered the gold standard for COVID-19 testing according to the World Health Organization.
PRC has now conducted a total of 3,307,946 tests, making up 23% of the total tests done nationwide, while Detoxicare and RITM have only tested 831,191 and 534,472 respectively. PRC also partnered with different shopping malls to put up its drive-thru collection sites to make their services accessible to more people who want to get tested for COVID-19.
“We now have a total of 13 molecular laboratories capable of testing 46,000 tests per day. As we expand our testing capacity, PRC will soon establish a new molecular laboratory in Cotabato to serve the city and its nearby provinces,” Gordon said.
“The more people we test, the faster we can beat the virus. In this way, people can now safely go back to work and to their schools and we can open up the economy,” he added.
The PRC molecular laboratory in Subic recently celebrated its first anniversary, which Gordon and other PRC officials attended virtually to show their support. (PRC) – jlo
