Koronadal City, South Cotabato – In order to aid and expand the COVID-19 testing capacity in South Cotabato, the provincial government headed by Governor Reynaldo S. Tamayo, Jr has purchased the Cepheid GeneXpert 16-Module Machine from Metro Manila.
The machine arrived last Saturday, September 5, 2020 at the General Santos City International Airport, and was installed by its authorized engineers and technicians on Monday, September 7 at the COVID-19 testing laboratory at the Dr. Arturo P. Pingoy Medical Center (DAPPMC).
Currently, the said testing laboratory is only using the 4-module machine that releases four (4) test results in fifty (50) minutes or thirty (30) tests in eight (8) hours. Now, with this new machine, the provincial government will be able to achieve its target of sixteen (16) test results in fifty (50) minutes or a maximum of one hundred fifty (150) tests in eight (8) hours. As mentioned by the DAPPMC medical technologists, it will be a great help for the province to have a faster turn-around time of test results per day.
In addition, according to Macare Medicals, Inc., the exclusive supplier and distributor of the machine, the Province of South Cotabato is the first ever Local Government Unit (LGU) in the Philippines to acquire the Cepheid GeneXpert 16-Module Machine for SARS-COV2 or COVID-19 Testing.
This is because to date, there are only three (3) 16-module machines in the country, the first two (2) which are the Lung Center of the Philippines and the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) are both Department of Health (DOH) – owned facilities and not LGUs.
