CMO insists: We're following PAHO covid19 testing guidelines

Chief Medical Officer Roshan Parasram has addressed concerns that TT is not doing as many tests as other nations with similar population sizes, as pointed out by PAHO officials on Tuesday.

“The ministry has abided by PAHO and WHO regulations from day one,” he insisted. “As you can see, there has been a considerable amount of testing in the past month. In the first instance, very few people were presenting with viral illness.”

Parasram was speaking during the Ministry of Health’s morning virtual press conference on Wednesday.

He also said the ministry will continue to test primary contacts of covid19 positive patients, in and outside of the household, even for quarantined patients.

He was responding to reports of primary contacts who were not being allowed into facilities to be tested.

“We swab anyone who is a primary contact generally,” he said.

Parasram said the process is voluntary and there were instances of people refusing to be tested.

“We can only test what presents to us.”