Free at VSMMC: Drive, walk-thru swabbing offered

CEBU, Philippines —  Good news to those who can’t afford the high cost of COVID-19 testing in private hospitals.

The subnational laboratory of Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) will start offering free swab testing to the public today, July 24, as part of efforts to expand the service to more people, especially those who cannot shoulder cost of the test as it is normally pegged at more or less P7,000 in private hospitals.

Dubbed as “drive-thru and walk-thru” swabbing for reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), the initiative is in line with the expanded testing guidelines set by the Department of Health in Memorandum 2020-0258-A.

The drive-thru and walk-thru kiosk is located on the ground floor of VSMMC along B. Rodriguez Street in Cebu City.

“This is a program to test people. This is for the public and this is for free,” said VSMMC spokesperson Atty. Cris Panugaling in a Facebook live session aired via the hospital’s official page.

The program is open for everyone -- no age limit. Those who are interested are invited to register online (https://bit.ly/vsmmconline) to secure a schedule.

A person will only be entertained and swabbed once successfully registered online and has an appointment schedule. Instructions for online registration are posted on the official Facebook page of VSMMC.

The swabbing is free of charge and results will be sent via email in four days.

For contact tracing purposes, the local government unit (LGU) where the swabbed individual comes from will also receive a copy of the results through the Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit of DOH-7.

Hospital officials said that the drive-thru and walk-thru swabbing is limited to only 20 slots per hour to comply with the safety measures against spread of COVID-19.

The requirements include an identification card issued by the government and an appointment schedule. The swabs are to be taken from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. on a given day.

Panugaling clarified that those who will be swabbed will not be allowed to enter the VSMMC building.

“In drive-thru swabbing, you don’t need to go out of your car. It’s just like when you are going in a drive-thru of a fast food chain,” he said.

He said there is no timeframe yet as to when the program will end, but he assured that those people who have registered online will be accommodated.

To recall, Malacañang earlier said that while it cannot afford to test “110 million Filipinos,” it will find means to reach such an initiative.

According to a report by Interaksyon.com, the government currently uses the term “expanded targeted testing” although health organizations have long used “mass testing” in its briefings without pertaining to the whole population. JMD (FREEMAN)