By HENRY EMPEÑO | Subic Bay Freeport

AFTER setting up two surge facilities here in the fight against the new coronavirus disease (Covid-19), the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) is now eyeing a mass-testing facility in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone to heighten the community’s response to the pandemic.

SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma said the agency will establish the facility in partnership with the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) with the end-view of completing up to 2,000 tests daily.

To do this, Eisma said the agency will put up at least two telephone booth-type swabbing centers at the Subic Bay Freeport main gate, where health workers will collect swab samples from patients.

“Once the samples are collected, these will be validated and sent to the Red Cross logistics and training center at the Naval Magazine area for testing,” she added.

Eisma sad that the PRC is now building a special facility to house testing equipment that include one automated RNA extraction machine and two polymerase chain reaction (PCR) machines.

The extraction machine is touted to run 90 samples per hour, while the PCR machines can each complete 1,000 tests daily for a combined total of 2,000 tests a day.

The PRC is said to be using polymerase chain reaction-based test kits to ensure accuracy.

Eisma said the testing will be open to the public, although priority for the medical procedure will be given to suspect and probable Covid-19 cases.

The Subic agency will also coordinate with the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. for the mechanics on fees and other charges that may be shouldered by the government for indigent patients.

“But (financially-capable patients) would have to pay at cost,” Eisma pointed out.

The SBMA sounded out this plan with the growing public clamor for mass-testing on a national scale, with experts saying that it could further optimize the government’s quarantine strategy and prevent further loss of lives.

Locally, Eisma said that mass-testing would also help the government and the Freeport authority in particular, “to get a good reading of the prevalence of the outbreak with the end-view of safely lifting the ECQ in order to get the Subic businesses running again.”

“If we don’t undertake mass-testing, we’d be fighting Covid-19 blindly. We have to get a better grasp of the situation so that we can act accordingly,” Eisma added.

The SBMA has been initiating solutions to the growing health risks that the local community faced because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Before this, the Subic agency established two care and isolation facilities at the Subic Gym and the former Leciel Hotel here, using its own funds and some donations from private companies, civic organizations and concerned individuals.

Eisma said these facilities will be used in the event that positive cases exceeded the capacity at the Baypointe Hospital in the Subic Freeport, which has admitted patients from Zambales, Olongapo City and Bataan.

As of April 18, Zambales has reported nine confirmed cases of Covid-19 with two recoveries, while Olongapo listed nine cases with one recovery, and Bataan province 80 cases with 15 recoveries.