By Liv G. Campo • May 4, 2020
Region 8 Covid team in Cebu for training
Photo Credit: Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Facebook Page
A ten-man team of one pathologist and nine medical technologists from the Department of Health Region 8 arrived in Cebu on Monday for a three-day COVID-19 proficiency training.
The Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV) said the team will receive training on COVID-19 testing and response at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center and at the DOH 7 Covid Testing Center.
“OPAV facilitated their trip from Ormoc City to Mandaue City as well as arranged for their accommodation and transport for the duration of their training in Cebu City,” read OPAV’s statement on its Facebook page.
OPAV adds that a molecular laboratory in Region 8 located at the old Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center has already passed Stage two of validation in the laboratory accreditation steps of the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM).
“The COVID-19 Proficiency Training of the personnel is stage 3 of the steps. After the training, Stage 4: proficiency testing will be done before Stage 5 or the full scale implementation,” says OPAV.
At the moment, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing of samples from Region 8 is done at VSMMC in Cebu City. Once the EVRMC passes Stage 5 accreditation by RITM, it will be able to run its own Covid testing.
