The COVID-19 molecular laboratory at the Valladolid District Hospital compound at Barangay Tabao, Valladolid town, Negros Occidental, has finally been granted permission to operate.
The Department of Health has issued a License to Operate to the Safeguard DNA Diagnostics Inc. and it can begin operations immediately, Negros Occidental provincial administrator Rayfrando Diaz said.
The COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) testing laboratory for Reverse Transcriptase-Polymerase Chain Reaction has been granted a license to operate until the end of the year.
Earlier, the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine gave the laboratory a pre-licensing proficiency test for SARS-CoV-2 detection rating of 100 percent.
The molecular laboratory in southern Negros Occidental is needed, especially with the recent surge in COVID-19 cases, Diaz said.*