Just Don't Call It 'Vico Lab,' Pasig Found a Way to Speed Up COVID Testing

Hoping to make the processing of COVID-19 tests faster, Pasig City's own molecular diagnostic laboratory is nearing 100-percent operations, Mayor Vico Sotto said Friday.

The facility is capable of electrochemiluminescence immunoassay analyzer (ECLIA) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests for coronavirus, the millennial mayor said. Processing of the tests without the lab was difficult.

The facility and equipment can still be used even after the pandemic for dengue and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) lab work, among other viruses. It is located at the Pasig Children's Hospital, which is also the city's COVID-19 Referral Center.

Sotto ended the post by asking for recommendations on what to call the molecular diagnostic laboratory — a registration requirement with the Department of Health. "Pag may nag-suggest na Vico Lab, magmumulta ng 500," he said.