RITM has resumed full operations, says DOH

(Eagle News) – The Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM) has resumed full operations after downscaling for about a week, the Department of Health said.

Ngayon po ay full operations na po uli ang RITM. Fully functional na po sila,” said DOH Spokesperson Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire in a virtual press briefing on Sunday, April 26.

She said only two of the 43 infected RITM personnel have yet to finish their quarantine, while none of the employees have been admitted in hospitals.

Wala pong admitted sa mga empleyado ng RITM,” she noted.

Vergeire said Health Secretary Francisco Duque III also visited the RITM last Friday to check on the staff and the institute’s facilities.

She said Duque thanked all the employees for their hard work and service to the public. He also checked what the other needs of the facility were.

Previously, it was reported that RITM had 43 confirmed COVID-19 staff that temporarily affected its daily testing output. The total workforce of RITM is 833 plantilla personnel with 29 currently working from home, 386 contract of service or job order, and 22 volunteers.

Last week, when the RITM’s scaled down operations, the DOH implemented a system of zoning for COVID-19 tests that the RITM was supposed to process.

Specimens that came in were “shifted to” DOH subnational laboratories such as the San Lazaro Hospital, Lung Center of the Philippines and UP National Institute of Health, as well as private licensed COVID testing laboratories The Medical City, St. Luke’s Medical Center in BGC and Quezon City, Chinese General Hospital, Makati Medical Center, Philippine Red Cross and Detoxicare.

The RITM is the country’s national reference laboratrory for COVID-19 testing.

(Eagle News Service)