CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — Belvedere Vista Corp., a real estate firm in Pampanga, has donated P6.1 million worth of antigen testing machines and kits to help the local government in detecting COVID 19 infections.
The donation was received by Governor Dennis Pineda during simple rites at the capitol grounds Thursday.
Pineda distributed the machines and test kits to different local government units in the province to speed up efforts against coronavirus infections.
The donation is composed of 23 antigen machines and 17,500 test kits. Each city and municipality in the province received one antigen machine and from 500 to 1,000 kits.
“Pinaliwanag ko po sa mga municipal and city mayors natin kasama ang mga medtech and nurses nila na gamitin ang mga antigen machines at kits na ito para makatulong sa pag-screen at mabilis na pag-detect ng mga COVID-19 patients natin,” the governor said.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an antigen test is used to assess whether a patient has an active infection.
An antigen test, like the more stringent Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests, also extracts and uses swab samples to screen an individual under surveillance for COVID-19.
The antigen test result has a turnaround of 12 to 15 minutes, compared to an RT-PCR test which takes days to be released.
Pineda, however, reminded the local chief executives that the antigen test result will be subjected to RT-PCR confirmatory test for diagnosing COVID-19 patients.
Meanwhile, the health care workers of the LGUs were trained in administering the antigen test.
