THE Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) has found the COVID-19 tests conducted by the Philippine Red Cross to be “valid and reliable.”
In a report, the RITM said it found nothing questionable with test results released by the PRC-Subic COVID-19 Laboratory involving 48 employees from the Ace Medical Center (ACEMC) Baypointe.
“We found no evidence of contamination for the 48 cases tested by PRC Subic that may have led to the generation of false positive results,” said RITM.
“The results released by PRC Subic for the concerned cases were found to be valid and reliable,” it added.
Last month, President Duterte ordered the Department of Health to look into reports that Red Cross COVID-19 tests produced “false positive” results. The directive came amid the word war between Duterte and PRC chairman Sen. Richard Gordon who has been spearheading a Senate probe on allegedly anomalous spending of the administration using COVID-19 pandemic funds.
The RITM, in its report, said second tests conducted on the same cases were found to be accurate.
“The test results for TMC Clark for the 45 samples submitted to them after three days following sample submission to PRC Subic, were likewise found to be valid and reliable,” said RITM.
It explained that variables in the tests conducted by the two laboratories may have contributed to the variation of the test results, specifically the timing of specimen collection as it happened three days apart.
“It is possible for the viral load in a sample collected at an earlier time point to be different from the viral load present in the sample collected at a later time point, especially if the timing of collection coincides with natural clearance of the virus by the host immune response,” said RITM.
