{"id":138797,"date":"2021-10-02T10:43:39","date_gmt":"2021-10-02T14:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=138797"},"modified":"2021-10-02T10:44:53","modified_gmt":"2021-10-02T14:44:53","slug":"new-pcr-machine-to-enable-local-testing-and-reducing-reliance-on-carpha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/new-pcr-machine-to-enable-local-testing-and-reducing-reliance-on-carpha\/","title":{"rendered":"New PCR machine to enable more local testing thereby reducing reliance on CARPHA"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In its ongoing fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Health has added a PCR machine to its arsenal.<\/p>

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This now allows the Sir Lester Bird Medical Centre to process additional virus tests, and lessens reliance upon the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) for assistance.<\/p>\n

According to Health officials, the Trinidad-based institution has imposed limits on the number of tests that any single Caribbean country can submit in a week.<\/p>

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Meanwhile,\u00a0in order to boost its contact-tracing capabilities, the Ministry has sought the services of 10 medical doctors.\u00a0\u00a0However, they have not yet commenced their internships to assist an already overwhelmed contact-tracing team.<\/p>

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Chief Medical Officer Rhonda Sealy-Thomas says adding these doctors is still not sufficient, given that the number of sick and infected persons continues to increase almost daily. (REAL NEWS)<\/p>\n

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In its ongoing fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Health has added a PCR machine to its arsenal. This now allows the Sir Lester Bird Medical Centre to process additional virus tests, and lessens reliance upon the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) for assistance. According to Health officials, the Trinidad-based institution has imposed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":138798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nNew PCR machine to enable more local testing thereby reducing reliance on CARPHA - Antigua News Room<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/new-pcr-machine-to-enable-local-testing-and-reducing-reliance-on-carpha\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New PCR machine to enable more local testing thereby reducing reliance on CARPHA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In its ongoing fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Health has added a PCR machine to its arsenal. This now allows the Sir Lester Bird Medical Centre to process additional virus tests, and lessens reliance upon the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) for assistance. 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