Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia expressed his gratitude to Department of Health-Region VI (DOH-6) director, Dr. Marlyn Convocar, who announced they will be allocating test kits to the city.

“Convocar said that the 5,000 test kits allocated for the Western Visayas will be sufficient for our immediate needs in the region,” he explained.

According to Bacolod City Health Office head, Dr. Ma. Carmela Gensoli, each test kit can accommodate between 10 to 20 specimens, which means the 5,000 test kits can accommodate between 50,000 to 100,000 specimens.

“We will continue to monitor the needs and we are ready to purchase what may be needed,” the mayor added.

Leonardia earlier issued an urgent appeal to DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III for 1,000 UTM, or universal transport medium, swabs.

After citing 11 patients under investigation and 1,123 persons under monitoring in the city, the mayor wrote, “It is quite possible that the actual number of positive cases could be more.”/WDJ