The Lopez-controlled First Gen Corporation and ABS-CBN Corporation donated P46 million worth of new machines and lab equipment to PGH. These will allow more automation and increase volume of testing, thereby expanding the hospital’s COVID-19 testing capacity from 150 to 1,500 tests per shift. Under a newly signed agreement between First Gen Corp and the University of the Philippines (UP), PGH will have free use of a system of laboratory machines for conducting reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction which is part of the COVID-19 test.
ABS-CBN, on the other hand, is donating several units of a fully integrated automated molecular diagnostics platform known as BD Max. This system combines the two processes of extraction and testing for the presence of the virus and shortens the testing period from four to just two hours. Excerpt from Inquirer.net
