COVID-19 testing delays ‘eased by donation’, says Minister of Health

Delays in testing results for the coronavirus (COVID-19) may be eased by a donation to the Ministry of Health from the World Health Organisation through its regional arm, the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO).

Minister of Health Lt. Colonel Jeffrey Bostic said the latest donation would overcome the bottleneck the ministry has experienced as it ramped up testing for the virus.

He said: “I can say that for example, in relation to the lab, testing, swabbing and results, we have been having some challenges recently because the lab has gone from testing in the low hundreds to now testing over 1,000 persons in the last few days.

“The equipment you present this morning will help us a long way towards alleviating many of the problems we have been facing.”

As more travellers arrive here during the winter tourist season, there has consequently been an increase in the number of individuals requiring a second PCR test.

Thermometers, IT systems and equipment for infection prevention and control were donated as part of the WHO/PAHO mandate to support member countries’ response to the pandemic.

The Ministry of Health is also using a new mobile application, SHAPE, that allows for data to be entered at polyclinics and other testing sites, Lt Col. Bostic revealed.

But not all of the officials were fully trained on the app up to a week ago when the island started to see an increase in visitors, further leading to delays in the testing, he added

“Normally we would have been able to get back results in a 24-hour period, but generally speaking, that went to 48-hours, which is still within the existing protocol, but we really wanted to be able to do it within 24-hours,” he said.

Lt Col. Bostic said once the data is entered into the app, that data “can be transmitted directly to the lab and other people who require the information so that in real time it will help us to alleviate the challenges we have been facing within recent times”.

He said the Ministry of Health had to provide additional staff at the airport as well as made tweaks in the processes involving testing, processing of samples, and the dissemination of results.

“We are at the point now where we are quite certain that we will be able to manage better going forward,” said Bostic, as he welcomed the new pieces of equipment.

Dr Yitades Gebre, PAHO/WHO Representative for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, stressed the need for countries to continue to control the spread of the virus.

Barbados and other countries are at “an inflection point in the pandemic”, he said, adding that “we’re not at a point where we can walk away from what we’ve been doing already”.

He continued: “We need to follow through on our commitments as individuals, as communities and as governments in the coming months to continue to build public health surveillance, to work with communities, to maintain public health and social measures, to continue to take those actions to be able to protect ourselves and our loved ones and save lives.

Dr Gebre insisted that preventative measures must be tightened to limit the risk of the infection during the festive season and to serve as permanent barriers against the spread of the virus.

“Complacency has no place in the fight against this pandemic,” he said. (MM)