Health Minister: Only one private lab allowed to do covid19 testing

HEALTH MINISTER Terrence Deyalsingh on Saturday sought to put to bed rumours that there were people who have tested positive for covid19 and are quarantining at home.

Several posts on social media have been circulating that there were groups of people in west Trinidad who contracted the virus and were tested at a private facility but did not inform the Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr Roshan Parasram.

Deyalsingh said there are regulations which mandate that every covid19 test result be sent to the CMO. He added that the one lab authorised to dotests is fully aware that if it fails to alert the CMO, the offence is punishable with a $50,000 fine and a six-month jail term for both the lab and the individual tested. Deyalsingh said, however, it was easy for “rogue labs” to import a covid19 testing machine and do tests on their own, although there is some oversight on the importation of the test kits.

Parasram said there is only one private lab that was given approval to do testing and that lab has been compliant with the regulations, even sending him WhatsApp updates on those tested.

The lab he spoke of, which was not named, is not the lab named in the social media posts.