This city will have its fourth coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) testing laboratory with the opening of the Covid-19 Biomolecular Laboratory on Thursday.

Operated by the Philippine Red Cross (PRC)-Zamboanga City Chapter, the laboratory is located at the PRC compound along Rizal Street, Barangay Zone 4 here.

Joseline Fernandez, PRC-Zamboanga City Chapter OIC-administrator, said Wednesday the PRC laboratory is equipped with two Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) testing machines and will operate 24/7.

Fernandez said the two machines are automated and have the capacity to test 2,000 samples or at least 1,000 samples each daily.

The laboratory will be manned by 25 personnel consisting of 15 medical technologists, three laboratory aides, three encoders, three swabbers, and a pathologist, she said.

The other three Covid-19 testing laboratories that are the government-owned Zamboanga City Medical Center (ZCMC), the ZCMC-Department of Agriculture laboratory, and the containerized Covid-19 testing laboratory of the Ciudad Medical Zamboanga, a private hospital. (PNA)