Structured testing implemented

As part of efforts to cut down on the wait for COVID-19 results, Government has moved to categorise persons and committed to returning results in 24 to 72 hours depending on the category into which the person falls.

Minister of Health and Wellness Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic explained that the new system would allow for speedier results to be delivered.

He admitted, however, that health authorities had been overwhelmed by the number of tests conducted within the past week, and blamed the surge in testing for the significant delays in results being returned.

He announced that persons in Category 1 would include medical officers, primary contacts of positive cases, police officers, inmates at HMP Dodds, prison officers, soldiers, all medical personnel, border security, immigration officers, customs officers, Barbados Port Inc officers, patients awaiting tests for medical treatment and patients in elder care facilities.

Bostic said persons in that category could expect results within 24 hours.

He said persons in Category 2 would include inbound and outbound visitors and they could also expect results within 24 hours.

He said secondary and tertiary contacts would comprise Category 3 and they could expect results within 24 to 36 hours, while persons who wanted to be tested out of general curiosity would be placed in Category 4 and could expect results between 48 to 72 hours.

The minister said the Glebe polyclinic in St George and Branford Taitt Polyclinic in Black Rock, St Michael, had been designated as testing centres for Category 1 persons only.

“The categories for testing and timelines will go a long way in facilitating the speedy return of results for those persons who require results back by a particular time. It will also allow us to facilitate the contact tracing process which is really the most important thing when it comes to testing because if we are to contain the spread of the virus as we are seeking to do at this point in time then it is important that we get to those primary contacts of known positive cases so that we can deal with the matter and that is why we are going in this direction,” Bostic said.

“In this way, we will be able to manage this process far better than we are doing now. We accept that we have been overpowered by this because the surge in the number of persons requiring tests really bowled us over and so we knew from about two days ago that we had to find a solution, a mechanism to deal with this problem and we believe with these new categories and the timelines given that we will be able to bring this to some type of closure.” (randybennett@barbadostoday.bb)