Cavite Governor Juanito Victor “Jonvic” Remulla Jr. bared that Cavite province will have its own coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) testing center in the next few weeks.
“Cavite will be the first province in Luzon to have its own PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction), DOH/RITM [Department of Health – Research Institute for Tropical Medicine] accredited testing laboratory,” the governor said in his Facebook post yesterday.
Remulla said Cavite is just “one step away from full accreditation” as they are just expecting from the DOH’s accreditation-certification to operate.
“Please be forewarned that once we identify the positive cases, they will be isolated and taken care of by the LGU’s,” he added.
In the same Facebook post, Remulla also identified the location of the 77 Cavite residents who tested positive for COVID-19. 24 are from Bacoor, 12 each from Dasmarinas and Imus, Tanza has 5, Naic and Gen. Trias have 4 each, 3 each from Noveleta and Silang, 2 from Rosario while Alfonso, Carmona, Cavite City, Indang, Maragondon, Mendez, Ternate and General Mariano Alvarez have one each.
Remulla also pointed out that when the testing center starts operating, all Cavite patients under investigation (PUIs) will be tested in around three days.
Nearby provinces from the south of Manila will also benefit as they will be tested afterward the Cavite PUIs have been tested.
“We’ll include everyone from Rizal, Quezon, Batangas, and Laguna,” he said.
Due to this massive testing capability, Remulla emphasized that a spike in COVID-19 cases is expected in the Calabarzon region.
“Maybe 400 amongst the four provinces, it will spike up to maybe 3,000 in one week,” he said. (Jojo Mangahis)