PAHO expert to train lab specialists here on coronavirus

Virology experts from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) are currently in the Caribbean to ensure that laboratory specialists are trained and equipped to identify and respond to potential imported cases of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) and a visit is to be made to Guyana.

According to a PAHO release, the training in the Caribbean began in Suriname, followed by Barbados and Haiti, and will continue later this week in Jamaica, Belize and Dominica. Next week, its experts will travel to The Bahamas and Guyana to complete this initiative in the sub-region.

The laboratory training currently underway in the Caribbean forms part of an overall initiative to ensure that 29 laboratories are ready to detect COVID-19 in the Region by 21 February 2020, with the US CDC in Atlanta serving as the regional reference laboratory.