$23.9m to be spent on test kits

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said TT will spend $23.9 million to acquire over 180,000 test kits.

He said this includes 23,000 from China, of which 20,000 are expected to arrive in October. These will cost $2 million.

Another 8,000 Abbot kits have arrived ahead of schedule, of which 2,000 will go to the North Central Regional Health Authority, 2,000 to the Medical Research Foundation, 1,000 to Trinidad Public Health Laboratory and 3,000 to South West Regional Health Authority, which is now able to do its own PCR testing.

Deyalsingh said 160,000 antigen test kits will be bought at a cost of $8.4 million. He said these tests will be a gamechanger for the decentralisation of testing.