DOH: Marikina lab to be accredited next week

MARIKINA, Philippines — The accreditation of Marikina’s molecular diagnostic laboratory for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) will come out next Wednesday, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said yesterday.

The Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases, meanwhile, clarified that it did not give Marikina any special privilege when the IATF-EID allowed the city’s testing facility to start operating yesterday without the final approval of the Department of Health (DOH).

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Alexei Nograles said the laboratory is in its last stages of accreditation with the DOH.

“As a general rule, the IATF fully supports the establishment and accreditation of all testing laboratories in the Philippines that will help us increase our testing capabilities and capacities,” Nograles said, adding that “necessarily, Marikina City is included.

He said the IATF tackled the roadblocks experienced by Marikina in its last meeting.

Duque, who visited the laboratory yesterday, said the accreditation was delayed because “there were requirements on the training of personnel and equipment. There were also machines that still had to be installed. The main concern of the DOH is really safety because what will be handled in the laboratory are live viruses.”

Duque said the DOH is strict in the enforcement of biosafety requirements because any mistake may lead to a epidemic that can spread in the community.

The DOH initially rejected an earlier facility proposed by Marikina Mayor  Marcelino Teodoro after it failed biosafety standards.

The decision to approve the laboratory came after Teodoro announced that they would open the facility with or without DOH approval.