Hundreds of UP-developed COVID-19 test kits sent out for field tests

Health authorities will send hundreds of COVID-19 test kits to selected hospitals in the country by Friday as part of the field testing of the kits developed by a team from the University of the Phlippines.

A thousand will be initially sent to such hospitals as the Philippine General Hospital in Manila, and the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu and the Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao.

The field tests will run for two to three weeks.

"Ang purpose ay para malaman nila ang behavior nung technology sa field," Philippine Genome Center executive director Dr. Raul Destura said at a press conference.

Destura is with the UP-National Health Institutes, which developed the local test kit.

"It will take us about dalawa hanggang tatlong linggo para makumpleto 'yung sinasabing sample size," he added.

Destura said patients who would test positive for the virus using the UP test kit during the field validation phase must be “willing to have themselves tested twice” as per the Department of Health.

Results of the validation studies will be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration, which gave the "green light" fir field validation.

"Pag inaprubahan ng FDA 'yung result ng study, then it becomes now a product that the whole country can access," Destura said.

Destura and his team are behind the locally-produced COVID-19 test kit.

The test kit was funded by the DOST through the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD). —NB, GMA News