Updated: CMO: All set to receive Suriname Trinis

ALL is in place to receive the 70 TT nationals who are expected to return home on Friday from Suriname, Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram said.

Speaking at the Health Ministry's daily covid19 virtual press conference on Friday, Parasram said he visited the UWI Debe campus to ensure all is in place there, as it is the designated quarantine facility for the returning nationals from Suriname.

He added that the county medical officer was at the Piarco Airport waiting to receive the group. They will be taken directly to the Penal, Debe campus.

He also revealed that a testing site is up and running at the North Central Regional Health Authority and as of last Sunday, it had begun receiving samples to test for the virus.

“We got a panel from the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) on April 26, and ...the results were good,” Parasram said.

Editor’s note, May 3: The original version of this story reported that a CARPHA team visited the NCRHA site. CARPHA has clarified that the term “panel” in this context refers to a set of specimens to be tested in the context of a quality assurance programme. CARPHA is not authorised by the Ministry of Health to perform inspection or validation functions in order for laboratories to operate in TT.

Our apologies for any confusion that may have been caused by this error.