By Dolly Yaaa
BACOLOD City – Mayor Evelio Leonardia said the opening of the Level 3 Biosafety Molecular Laboratory of the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH) in Bacolod this week is expected to speed up the release of COVID test results for Bacolod.
“At the same time facilitate the much-needed mass testing,” Leonardia added.
Leonardia said the city invested P20 million in the biolab.
“We can say definitely that it is worth it. It was a unanimous decision of our city officials to make this come true because we are all aware of its major positive impact in our fight against COVID-19.”
Leonardia, Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, and other city officials conducted a familiarization tour of the new biosafety laboratory Tuesday.
It is scheduled to open Saturday on July 11, 2020.
Once given a license to operate by the Department of Health (DOH) after the proficiency testing on July 8, the biolab can then start to operate.
Simultaneous with the familiarization tour of city officials at the CLMMRH biosafety laboratory was the opening of the Queen of Mercy Hospital (BQMH) Bio-Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory.
“There are other biolabs being established in the city, so I hope that we can conduct a mass testing to Bacolodnons. That is very essential because the most basic of all is we have to know whether one is positive or not,” Leonardia said.
“The mass testing is long-anticipated since the start of the COVID crisis because we needed to do test, trace, and treat. Mass testing is the aspect of our program that we need the most – as we all know with our situation before when we didn’t have our own biolab, we had to go to Iloilo.”
The city government appropriated P14 million for the buildings and other structures of the biolaboratory and P4.8 million for the procurement of equipment reagents and kits for COVID-19 testing.
The biosafety laboratory is a product of the partnership between the Bacolod City government and CLMMRH.
CLMMRH medical center chief Dr. Julius Drilon said that for now, the biolab can run 100 tests per day.
Joining the familiarization tour were first lady Elsa Leonardia, Councilors Cindy Rojas, Renecito Novero, Al Victor Espino, and Bartolome Orola; City Health Officer Dr. Ma. Carmela Gensoli and IATF spokesperson Dr. Grace Tan.
