New PCR machine to enable more local testing thereby reducing reliance on CARPHA

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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 limits on the number of tests that any single Caribbean country can submit in a week.

Meanwhile, in order to boost its contact-tracing capabilities, the Ministry has sought the services of 10 medical doctors.  However, they have not yet commenced their internships to assist an already overwhelmed contact-tracing team.

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)

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3 COMMENTS

  1. I was waiting for someone to ask how come MOST of our tests were being done by CARPHA.

    I was wondering when some MEDIA PERSONEL would have noticed and asked about it.

    I hear that reagents are in VERY SHORT SUPPLY and could NOT be purchased. IMAGINE THAT.

    Tek dat in you pipe and smoke it in this ECONOMIC POWER-HOUSE.

  2. PCR test are unreliable for individual diagnosis. Even the inventor of the test says so, although he’s now dead. The error rate is too high for sufficiently reliable individual diagnosis – too many false positives. The PCR test is a tool designed to track the overall spread of viruses throughout the population.

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