By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

The local government units (LGUs) in Negros Occidental will now start to receive faster swab test results for their constituents from the Teresita Lopez Jalandoni Provincial Hospital-Provincial Molecular Laboratory in Silay City.

Provincial administrator Rayfrando Diaz said each LGU will be given their respective usernames and passwords to access the Management Information System of the molecular laboratory.

Diaz also stated the Covid-19 monitoring system is upgraded and automated in generating reports to the Department of Health and LGUs.

Due to the automation, swab test results are now expected to be released within 24 to 48 hours.

The provincial administrator also revealed that one of the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction machines used by the laboratory had recently encountered problems and as of now only one machine is operational.

Earlier in July of this year, the Provincial Health Office hired additional encoders from the Negros Occidental Language and Information Technology Center in order to expedite the release of the swab test results.

Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson has also been working hard in order to add a third machine for the molecular laboratory in order to hasten the processing of swab tests./DGB, WDJ