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Paula Lindo Wednesday 13 May 2020

The Scarborough General Hospital has received machines and test kits to enable testing for covid19 in Tobago. Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said training and validation are currently taking place and testing can begin from next week.

He said the machine, called a gene expert machine, is not a high-throughput machine like the ones at the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and the Trinidad Public Health Laboratory. He said the machine can only do three tests per hour, and so is suitable for emergency use in Tobago if there is concern about a patient. He said a result can be had in 45 minutes.

Deyalsingh said tests would no longer have to be flown to Trinidad once the machine has been certified. He said that will lead to a more robust response in Tobago.

He said there are now 10,000 test kits in TT, exclusively for use here. He said testing can now be ramped up in a serious way. He said 792 tests have been done in the community thus far and all have been negative to date.