No less than 700 mostly donated GeneXpert machines, capable of detecting the COVID-19 virus in 45 minutes, remain largely untapped in the country’s fight against the pandemic, Anakalusugan Party-List Rep. Michael Defensor said Sunday.
“The automated GeneXpert units, once brought into play, can easily triple to almost 1,000 the country’s COVID-19 testing laboratories and improve in a big way public access to screening services,” Defensor said.
This developed as the Department of Health gave the go-signal for booster and additional shots of COVID-19 vaccines for healthcare workers and the elderly within the year, and for eligible priority groups by 2022.
The booster shots and additional shots were upon the October 13 recommendation of the Health Technology Assessment Unit (HTAU) and later approved by Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.
Meanwhile, the country welcomed 3 million more doses of the Sinovac vaccine on Sunday. The shipment arrived at past 6 p.m. at Terminal 2 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
Two million doses of the vaccine were procured by the government, while 1 million were donated by China.
The Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria donated the bulk of the country’s inventory of GeneXpert machines to the DOH to help in the rapid diagnosis of TB cases, including multidrug-resistant TB, according to Defensor.
“Many of the GeneXpert units are already installed in the TB diagnostic laboratories of public hospitals, and they can also be used for COVID-19 testing,” he said.
“The problem, as usual, is bureaucratic red tape, as if we are not in the middle of a public health emergency,” said Defensor, who is running for mayor of Quezon City next year.
While the World Health Organization (WHO) has issued guidance that existing TB laboratories may also function or double as COVID-19 testing sites, Defensor said the DOH’s Health Facilities and Services Licensing Bureau is saying they must undergo separate licensing for coronavirus screening anyway.
“The DOH should harness all our GeneXpert machines to help put a downward pressure on the elevated cost of COVID-19 testing services offered by private laboratories,” Defensor said.