New 'drive-thru' COVID-19 testing facility opens: Here's everything you need to know
MANILA, Philippines — The rising number of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 cases) makes testing as important and as crucial as ever.
Thus, the search for accurate, fast and reliable tests for detecting COVID-19 never ends. It is necessary if we are to fulfill our dream for the end to this long-standing pandemic that has claimed many lives.
The latest to join this search is The Medical City (TMC). It recently opened a drive-thru COVID-19 testing site in partnership with the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health (ASMPH).
Anyone who wants to be tested for COVID-19 need not leave his or her vehicle and get exposed to the deadly virus. He or she needs to just park the vehicle in the 18-vehicle-capacity ASMPH parking area at the back of the hospital in Ortigas Avenue, Pasig City.
A medical technician garbed in complete personal protective equipment (PPE) approaches the waiting vehicle and asks the person who wants to be tested to extend an arm and take a deep breath. The technician then extracts blood from the extended arm.
The blood sample goes through an Enhanced Chemiluminiscence Immunoassay (ECLIA) antibody test to check for the presence or absence of COVID-19.
“The purpose of antibody testing is to detect antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) which is useful for serological surveillance, monitoring recovery and adjunct to RT PCR (reduction of false negative due to pre-analytic factors like transportation and storage and collection),” explained doctor Sarah Jane Datay-Lim.
She added that ECLIA antibody tests use laboratory machines with higher sensitivity and specificity than rapid antibody tests.
Sensitivity is the proportion of patients who have the disease and return a reactive test result. Specificity, on the other hand, is the proportion of patients without the disease who return a non-reactive test result.
ECLIA is the first antibody test certified by the United States and the Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It is also fully automated.
Test price is P2, 200. Results would then be e-mailed to the test patient within 24 hours.
The drive-thru is open from Monday to Sunday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
