MANILA, Philippines — Marikina City Mayor Marcelino Teodoro on Tuesday announced the scheduled opening on Friday of the city’s testing center for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) even without the permission of the Department of Health (DOH). A press statement from the local government unit (LGU) read that the mayor “invoked his local autonomy over the matter” in making this move. Minutes after the mayor announced the scheduled opening of the testing center, a team from the DOH arrived to inspect the facility, according to the Marikina City local government. The LGU later identified a two-storey building along Bayan-Bayanan Avenue in Barangay Concepcion Uno as the new site for local COVID-19 testing. As of 3 p.m. Monday, Marikina City has already recorded 59 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer April 14, 2020 03:04 UTC