(Trinidad Express) Approximately 600 COVID-19 samples awaiting testing are expected to be cleared in the next 24-48 hours.
The samples were transferred to a private lab for testing after the country’s testing capacity was recently overwhelmed by rapidly increasing numbers.
This according to Dr Naresh Nandram, principal medical officer in epidemiology at the Ministry of Health who addressed the backlog in testing and reporting at a virtual media conference on Saturday.
“Samples left for testing as of this morning have approximately 600 samples left and that’s after we leverage one more tweak to our system. The clear the backlog of samples we have leveraged utilization of a private lab that was willing to accept samples from us.
The samples went across yesterday and we hope to have the results within 24 to 48 hours. 600 samples is well within the daily capacity but I ask the public to be cognizant of the fact that 600 samples is not all the samples that we receive. Samples are continuously brought in daily and nightly to the laboratories,” he said.
Dr Nandram attributed the large increase in samples to non-adherence to the public health protocols. He explained that the “Stay home if you are ill,” guideline issued by the Ministry is not being followed by some. As a result, he said, larger webs of contacts are required to be tested on multiple occasions.
“The challenge that we have been having is that persons who test positive undergo a contact tracing process and this results in a number of contacts that we then subsequently need to test to determine that they are positive. When symptomatic persons who have a cough and cold stay home, that list is very small. Members of their immediate family or maybe one or two persons who visit their homes. However, if persons do not adhere to guidelines we have been advising, if persons are ill, symptomatic and they do not stay at home, that list becomes a lot larger.”
“Persons may go to work, they used to go to school when schools were open, they visit the banks, supermarkets and that list becomes very very large. So, from a singular case we can end up with hundreds of persons who we may need to test not once but multiple periods of times during their quarantine. So, I implore the members of the public again if you are ill please stay home. It only puts additional strain on the testing of persons and creates a larger web of contacts that need to be traced,” he said.
In addressing the capacity issues, he said that several steps were taken by the Ministry to increase testing. Of these were the reactivation of the Medical Research Foundation. A machine stationed there he said, underwent validation and is awaiting approval. He added that the Ministry was considering expansion of testing at the Eric Williams Medical Center and a molecular testing service the Trinidad and Tobago Public Health Lab. Additionally, he said, labs would be asked to operate on a 24 hour basis, using a roster system and requiring additional staff.
“Capacity at (the Mt Hope Hospital) is under consideration for expansion. I’ve received a proposal requesting consideration for the addition of a machine to boost capacity at the Eric Williams site. In addition to that approval has been granted and funding identified to procure a PCR machine to establish a molecular testing service for COVID-19 as well as other diseases at the TTPHL,” he said.
