Health Ministry Testing For Delta And Other COVID-19 Variants

The Ministry of Health and Wellness has begun testing for the Delta and other variants of the coronavirus (COVID-19).

This was disclosed by Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr. Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie, who was addressing a virtual press briefing on Thursday (July 1).

She said that the Ministry has arranged for the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) to test the samples for any mutations that would pose a concern.

She noted that the PAHO laboratory in Brazil received 200 samples from the Ministry last week, while the laboratory based in Panama received 100.

Additionally, 92 samples are to be sent to the CDC for testing.

“The turnaround time once they receive the sample at PAHO, we have been told, is two weeks, so we are hopeful that in another two weeks we’ll have the first set of results,” she said.

“We also have started to do some in-house testing using kits that are donated by PAHO that enable us to choose the samples better for testing,” Dr. Bisasor-McKenzie said.

She noted that the Ministry is paying keen attention to the Delta variant because it has a higher transmissible and hospital admission rate.

The CMO is encouraging persons in quarantine to continue to adhere to the protocols.

“The number of persons under quarantine would reflect the number of persons arriving in the country, and so we are at significant risk, considering that over 90 per cent of the population is still not vaccinated. Therefore, we encourage persons to maintain the precautions… not only the persons who are themselves under quarantine but those around them,” she said.

The quarantine requirement for fully vaccinated persons has been reduced to eight days, and the CMO has indicated that “we do expect that we would pick up most cases that would become symptomatic within those eight days. So, it’s very important that persons stay home at least for those eight days to ensure that they are not developing symptoms that they would need to have further testing”.