Deyalsingh: TT will have 4 covid19 testing sites soon

HEALTH Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said TT will be moving from two covid19 testing sites to four "in the shortest space of time."

He was responding to an urgent question in the House Friday on the status of the decentralisation of covid19 testing at the country's major hospitals.

He said the issue of testing is one that causes a lot of angst globally because of a lack of information and understanding. He explained that TT, like other Caricom member states, uses Caribbean Public Health Agency (Carpha) gold standard PCR which is 99.6 per cent accurate. He added the country did not follow the UNC suggestions to do rapid tests or antibody testing, or the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, where initially those tests were incorrect.

Deyalsingh said, to date, TT is testing at two sites: Carpha and the virology lab on the compound of Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex.

He reported Tobago has received their machine to do testing and officials were now in the process of clearing through customs their test kits and, when operational, that will be the third site.

He explained that because of the US embargo on equipment and supplies leaving that country the PCR machine at San Fernando only received test kits Friday.

"So in very short order we would have moved from one testing site, to now two, to four. So that will be more than sufficient to cover TT."

Deyalsingh explained that one of the reasons the Health Ministry is not looking to expand testing was because of the need to manage the quality-assurance and quality-control issues.

Barataria/San Juan MP Dr Fuad Khan asked Deyalsingh if he would consider doing randomised testing. Deyalsingh replied randomised testing was started since May 11 through the community testing programme and to date 1,558 tests have been done. He pointed out that acute viral illness cases in January was 1,505 but, since the covid19 public health measures, cases have dropped to 230.

"We are now at 15 per cent of our January figures. And that impacts on the number of covid suspect cases because suspect cases form a subset of acute viral illnesses.

Naparima MP Rodney Charles asked why, with the decentralisation and those statistics, a country like St Kitts and Nevis has, on a per capita basis, 20 times the testing of TT. Deyalsingh said with the precipitous decline in acute viral illnesses, and the concurrent drop in people with respiratory symptoms, the need for testing would be significantly less. He also asked when St Kitts and Nevis closed its borders, closed schools, instituted mask wearing or stopped non-essential work.

"You cannot compare apples and oranges. TT has been ranked number one in the world (by the Oxford University Covid19 Government Response Tracker) because this Government followed its own path."

As at Sunday TT had 118 samples that tested positive for covid19, eight deaths and 109 recoverd patients discharged from public health institutions.