Nilinaw ng Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) sa Muntinlupa City na tanging mga laboratoryo lang nila ang apektado ng temporary shutdown kasunod nang pag-test positive ng ilan nilang mga empleyado sa COVID-19.
Ayon kay RITM director Dr. Celia Carlos, nasa 43 ang kabuuang bilang ng staff na infected ng sakit.
“Our hospital operations shall remain in full swing. Our primary concern right now is employee welfare,” ani Carlos.
“The strength of the RITM family lies in each and every one of its members working together in perfect cohesion, hence, we will only be able to provide the best possible care and service if the safety of our people is assured.”
Posibleng hanggang Biyernes, April 24 daw magtagal ang scale down ng operasyon sa RITM dahil sa nagpapatuloy na decontamination sa mga gusali.
Pati na ang pagche-check up at testing sa mga RITM personnel.
Ang Department of Health ay nagpayo na magkaroon ng “temporary zoning system” para sa referral ng mga specimen sa 16 na iba pang testing center.
“Prior to this scale down, we were still trying to maintain our daily testing target of 1,500 specimens. Our capacity was impaired when some personnel got infected; this has caused an uproar that severely disrupted our established workflows. With the decreased number of available staff and the large volume of specimens received by RITM before today, the turnaround time for our testing has been prolonged to more than five days,” ani Carlos.
May hawak pa raw na 5,000 pang specimen ang RITM laboratories para sa confirmation.
Bukod sa hiring ng dagdag na staff, nakipag-partner na rin daw ang tanggapan sa Department of Agriculture at Philippine Red Cross para sa dagdag na RT-PCR machines.
Maging ang National Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory ay activated na rin daw para tumanggap ng testing.
“Through the assistance of the World Health Organization (WHO), RITM is also set to receive an automated PCR machine and is set to initiate use of its GeneXpert Instrument System that can minimize the testing time to 45 minutes per sample.”
Tiwala raw ang RITM na mauubos ang kanilang backlog sa testing sa pagtatapos ng Abril.
Ito’y dahil binawasan na rin umano ang dami ng specimen na pinapadala sa kanila para sa testing.
“We understand that this is a cause for concern, but the number of positive cases among our personnel will continue to rise if we approach the issue in a business-as-usual manner.”
Sa ngayon, 790 staff ng RITM na raw ang na-swab at hinihintay ang resulta ng test sa COVID-19.
“The index patient in RITM is an encoder who contracted the virus from his community. Through an internal contact tracing activity, the high-risk individuals have been identified and were the first to receive necessary interventions.”
