PRIVATE TESTS ALLOWED

Terrence Deyalsingh
Terrence Deyalsingh

In a major about-turn, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh announced on Tuesday that private medical labs with PCR (polymerase chain reaction) machines can do covid19 tests, for a fee, once these labs are fully certified by the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA).

This measure is an addition to the Public Health Ordinance regulations, under which the private labs will agree to test and report all results directly to the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and not to the patient.

This amendment took effect on Monday. Validated labs were warned that breach of this agreement with CARPHA could result in a $50,000 fine or six months’ imprisonment.

Deyalsingh made this annnouncement at the covid19 daily virtual press briefing which was also attended by Minister of National Security Stuart Young and CMO Dr Roshan Parasram.

On March 10, amid reports of doctors sending people with symptoms to private labs for testing, an angry Deyalsingh said the only testing for covid19 would be done by CARPHA.

He lamented that some labs had been asking private doctors to send patients’ swabs to them for testing, even though the samples would then have to be sent on to CARPHA for verification. Urging doctors to send the swabs straight to CARPHA, Deyalsingh said then, “Cut out the middle man.”

He also warned about false reports from private medical labs, a topic the CMO touched on at the press briefing on Tuesday. Parasram said three people had received false-positive results at private labs and after they were retested with PCR kits, CARPHA produced negative results.

“There are no labs we can recommend for testing right now,” he said. “More concerning is that they may have had people go to a private lab, got a negative test, feeling it’s fine – and go about their lives.”

He said this could cause an alarming rate of spread.

But, he said, “Once you (labs) are validated, we have confidence in you to put out accurate test results.”Like CARPHA, private labs are expected to produce results within 24-48 hours. The country should brace for a possible spike of cases now that more testing is going to be done. Deyalsingh pointed out the focus should not be the increase in cases but the ministry’s efforts at faster detection, with the help of private labs and ramped-up testing throughout TT.

He asked labs to offer a reasonable price for testing, as a test can cost around U$1,000. Tests done by CARPHA are free. It has been reported that a test at private labs costs between $600 to as high as $1,000.

Deyalsingh said the move is to strengthen the ministry’s database.

“We did not take this decision lightly but it is taken in the national interest to ramp up testing. This is a partnership built on a memorandum of understanding that this is a reportable disease, this is a national effort and we have to create a national database to manage the activities.”Parasram gave an update on the 106 cases.There were 70 patients in Couva, up to Tuesday morning, with one person warded in ICU in a stable condition. Three people remain in the high-dependency unit and the remaining 66 are stable.He said most of those 66 patients are showing no symptoms and 16 of them are waiting to be transferred out of Couva.

The others are waiting for a negative test to be transferred. The transfer of the 16 patients is expected to begin in the coming days once a “suitable” facility is identified.They will be quarantined for a few more days and retested. Once they are “clinically free,” according to Delyalsingh, they will be discharged.No additional symptoms have surfaced among 22 people still under quarantine at the Seventh Day Adventist camp Balandra, Toco. The group arrived in TT from a Caribbean cruise on March 17 and was sent into immediate quarantine.Forty-six of them tested positive and were moved to Couva.The remaining 22 at the camp last tested negative on March 26 and are doing well. They have almost completed their quarantine and once no virus symptoms appear, they will be sent home at the end of this week.

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