Read More About COVID-19

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a new strain of coronavirus. This new virus and disease were unknown before the outbreak began in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. On January 30, 2020, the Department of Health reported the first case of COVID-19 in the country with a 38-year-old female Chinese national. On March 7th, the first local transmission of COVID-19 was confirmed. Months since then, the country’s COVID-19 cases are nearing 400,000.

On Proactive Testing

As quarantine measures in most parts of the Philippines ease up and economic activities tentatively restart, we are seeing a spike of requests for proactive COVID-19 testing from travelers, returning OFWs, corporate offices, and more.

Sarita Shah, MD, an associate professor of global health, epidemiology and infectious diseases at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health who led a study on proactive testing in long-term care facilities said testing is the cornerstone of controlling the pandemic. Together with infection prevention and control measures, proactive testing helps find cases early especially asymptomatic ones, preventing further potential outbreaks in a vulnerable population.

Across the world, more than half of people found infected with COVID-19 are asymptomatic. Even then, experts believe the spread of asymptomatic cases could be more significant than estimated, since people have different thresholds before reporting symptoms. Some asymptomatic cases may never be reported at all if left undetected.

FAQ's

Have questions? Looking to book with us or learn more about our services? Check out some of our FAQs below.

Anyone with symptoms should be tested, wherever possible. People who do not have symptoms but have had close contact with someone who is, or may be, infected may also consider testing – contact your local health guidelines and follow their guidance.

While a person is waiting for test results, they should remain isolated from others. Where testing capacity is limited, tests should first be done for those at higher risk of infection, such as health workers, and those at higher risk of severe illness such as older people, especially those living in seniors’ residences or long-term care facilities.
It is recommended to get tested after 5-7 days from date of exposure to a known COVID-19 positive individual.

The incubation period of COVID-19, which is the time between exposure to the virus and symptom onset, is on average 5-7 days, but can be as long as 14 days.
Php 2,940.00 per test.
We offer 24-36 hours and 6-12 hours turnaround time.
Yes, contact us directly for more information.
Yes, contact us directly for more information.
When it comes to COVID-19 testing, your choice of test type usually is a choice between accuracy and speed. You need to fully understand the tools available in the toolkit, and then pull out the right one at the right time.

A COVID-19 antigen test can provide results quickly, but RT-qPCR is considered the gold standard for COVID-19 testing as it provides a more definitive answer as to whether an individual has the virus in their body. In fact, in situations where antigen testing is used for rapid screening, negative results are often sent to the lab for confirmatory RT-qPCR testing to verify if the individual is indeed virus-free. In addition, there is a third type of test: a COVID-19 antibody test. An antibody test is a blood test that does not detect active virus. Instead, it detects antibodies to SARS-CoV-2. The presence of antibodies indicates that someone is actively dealing with, or recovered from, a COVID-19 infection.
BioPATH uses US/Europe brands, FDA approved, and RITM validated test kits:

PerkinElmer® SARS-CoV-2 Real-time RT-PCR Assay
https://perkinelmer-appliedgenomics.com/home/products/sars-cov-2-real-time-rt-pcr-assay-ce-ivd/
Xpert Xpress SARS-CoV-2
https://www.cepheid.com/coronavirus
A positive or negative result is affected by several factors such as viral load, course (day), of the disease, patient immune response, medications and presence of PCR inhibitors, swabbing technique and sample quality.

“It is expected that a series of positive results could be immediately followed by a negative result within a few days, which is the normal course of the disease as the body attempts to recover and eliminate the virus.”
Our tests detect 3 types of genes found in COVID-19 virus. ORF1ab, N2, and E. When a presumptive positive result is released, only E gene is detected. E gene is may also be detected in other types of virus.

Recently, manufacturer (Cepheid) of our test kits recently released a statement:

“Presumptive Positive results in the GeneXpert SARS-CoV-2 assay should be interpreted by the laboratory according to existing national or local laws and guidelines. If other RT-PCR assays with different target genes (other than N2) are available, it can be retested to confirm the result. However, other countries consider the Presumptive Positive result of the GeneXpert, where the E target is positive but the N2 target is negative due to a mutation in the N2 sequence, as True Positive result based on sequence analysis and positive results in other diagnostic platform.”

As such, results from Xpert Xpress SARS-CoV-2 Assay should only be reported as POSITIVE or NEGATIVE following the above guidelines.
When one of the two targets, but not both, is present above the threshold for positivity, the test is reported as “inconclusive”. This is usually seen with low amounts of viral DNA. In practice, “inconclusive” results should be treated as presumptive positive COVID cases with a low viral load present.
Sometimes a test sample may not give a clear result. This is called an indeterminate/invalid/inhibitory result. This means sample provided is not optimal and cannot produce appropriate data to determine if individual tested is infected or not. Recollection of sample is required.

Is it COVID-19?

Have you experienced any of the symptoms associated with COVID-19? Have you been exposed to a PUI or a PUM? Take our short quiz.

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