Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony has said that the COVID-19 testing backlog has been significantly cleared and the processing time for samples that have recently been collected should be faster.
During a COVID-19 update, Dr. Anthony reported that the testing backlog that once stood at 1,900 samples awaiting processing has been significantly reduced. “I’m happy to report… that we actually have cleared that backlog and therefore as samples come in we have the capabilities of processing the samples,” he said. He added that if a lot more samples are received, then they experience a bit of a backlog at the National Public Health Reference Laboratory but presently a lot of the samples that were there have been cleared.
Dr. Anthony indicated that they were able to do so by outsourcing processing of the samples, 500 of which were sent to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA). He mentioned that just over 450 of the results were returned.
Earlier this week, another 138 samples were sent to CARPHA and the results are expected quite soon. “So that’s one of the ways that we’ve been able to reduce the backlog—by outsourcing the processing of those samples and CARPHA has been very good to us in helping us to reduce that backlog,” the minister noted.
A number of other measures are being explored as it relates to the processing of samples. On this note, Anthony mentioned that the ministry is looking at the possibility of sending samples to the United States if another backlog occurs. The ministry has been in communication with two centres, one located in Houston and another in New York, in this regard. “So, again, if we have lots of samples coming in and we start seeing an accumulation of samples then we would be able to use these two centres in the US to process some of our backlog,” he explained.
Dr. Anthony assured that the processing time for samples has been drastically reduced as they have cleared the backlog significantly and he mentioned that within 24 to 48 hours persons should be able to get their results back. However, that is contingent as there is a certain capacity at the National Public Health Reference Laboratory. “We can’t exceed more than 300 currently at the national lab so we have that limitation per day and so if we go beyond that, if we receive more samples than that, then we’ll have a little backlog accumulating,” he said.
