Machines, test kits for pooled testing arrive in Phl

The private sector testing initiative led by Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion is ready for the pilot implementation of the pooled polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests in Metro Manila.

- Louella Desiderio

Concepcion, also the Go Negosyo founder, said in a statement yesterday that the extraction machines and testing kits needed for the project have arrived from Chengdu and Shanghai in China and would be used for the pooled PCR testing initiative of the Project Antibody Rapid test Kit (ARK).

These equipment and supplies would be distributed to Go Negosyo pooled testing hospitals and laboratory beneficiaries to test 100,000 public market vendors and drivers as well as employees and owners of micro, small and medium enterprises. Also among those qualified for the tests are locally stranded individuals.

The pilot test will commence after the results of the research conducted in partnership with the Philippine Society of Pathologists, Philippine Children’s Medical Center and the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine on the validity of pooled PCR tests or having swab samples of many individuals in one test are released tomorrow.