With COVID-19 restrictions lifted, the Eureka Medical Laboratory on Thomas Street is just doing a handful of PCR tests each day as compared to the hundreds that it did daily at the height of the pandemic.
One of the major labs doing testing when the pandemic erupted here in 2020, the Lab is now down to doing 6 to 10 COVID-19 PCR tests per day, an official said. The PCR was the test highly in demand during the period.
At the height of the pandemic Eureka was doing as many as 233 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests per day. This was because of the rapid increase in the number of cases of the virus and the number of COVID-19 deaths recorded at the time. The highest number of PCR tests recorded by Eureka Lab in a day was 700 across its various branches such as Berbice, Linden, Bartica, Diamond and Parika.
Local COVID-19 restrictions were progressively lifted in 2021 and testing is now not required for international travel.
Currently the Eureka Lab on Thomas Street only does 6-10 PCR and 30-45 antigen tests per day. Paul Cheddie, Head of the COVID-19 department at the Eureka Lab in an interview with Stabroek News stated that persons who were travelling to the US were the main clients since the requirement was that the PCR test had to be done within 24 hours of the intended arrival. These days, only persons with symptoms take COVID-19 tests at the lab.
The lab had hired additional staff during the pandemic peak so that persons could receive results in a timely manner. After the decline in the demand for testing these workers were only required for around 20 hours per week. According to Cheddie, due to the significant change the new allocated hours were a struggle for some staffers since the cost of living has increased significantly. Consequently some of these staffers did not return to the job.
