A TOTAL of 24 medical technologists in Northern Mindanao will be participating in the Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) training next week, Department of Health (DOH)-Northern Mindanao Infectious Diseases cluster head Dr. Ian Gonzales said on Saturday, May 16.
According to Gonzales, the PCR training will be conducted by experts from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) and World Health Organization, who are expected to arrive in Cagayan de Oro City on the third week of May.
Gonzales said among the 24 medical technologists, ten are from the DOH-Northern Mindanao Tuberculosis Reference Center; six from the Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC); six from Polymedic Medical Plaza; one from JR Borja General Hospital; and one from the City Health Office.
Meanwhile, Gonzales said the NMMC has acquired its license to operate, however, he added that the hospital is still waiting for the test cartridges from the national government before they can start the Covid-19 testing using the GeneXpert PCR machine.
The NMMC, with the use of the GeneXpert machine, can conduct four tests per hour. With the maximum operation of 12 hours a day, the NMMC can conduct a total of 48 tests per day.
With the PCR machine, however, Gonzales said the DOH-Northern Mindanao Tuberculosis Reference Center (with two PCR machines) can conduct 200 to 300 tests a day; Polymedic Medical Plaza (with one PCR machine) can conduct 100 tests per day; and NMMC (using another brand of PCR machine) can do 100 to 200 tests per day.
