Tufton: No issue with our capacity to test
Published:Wednesday | March 18, 2020 | 12:30 AMNickoy Wilson/Staff Reporter
With fewer than 100 persons tested since the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Jamaica last Tuesday, raising questions about the country’s capacity, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton yesterday declared that there is enough material to carry out over 2,000 examinations, with more on the way.
Tufton made the declaration while speaking at a press briefing at Jamaica House in St Andrew, where he, among other things, confirmed the island’s 13th case of COVID-19.
“We have sufficient reagents to test. We have enough to test approximately 2,500,” the health and wellness minister said.
“We just got new stock yesterday and we are ordering additional in anticipation that this will last for a particular period of time. So there is no issue right now as it relates to our capacity to test.”
Seeking to explain why testing was not being offered islandwide, Tufton cited the conditions that must be followed to ascertain definitive results.
“A number of persons have been saying, ‘Why not try to expand testing, you know, and to get rapid test so persons can go to several locations to get the test done?’
“This is not possible at this time.”
The minister said that reagents – or materials – were not readily available, and that persons had to be specially trained to conduct the tests under controlled settings.
Tests are currently being conducted in relation to 11 more suspected cases.
Last week, The Ministry of Health said it was tracking between 200 and 300 persons who potentially came in contact with novel coronavirus patients across six parishes: Kingston, St Andrew, St Thomas, Clarendon, St James, and St Ann.
Responding to questions about why more the people have not been tested, Chief Medical Officer Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie said people would have to first present with symptoms to meet that requirement.
FALSE SECURITY
“As it is now, our protocol is that when the person meets the case definition of a suspected case, that is when we test ... . If we test too early and the test is negative, for example, we test all the contacts and the tests results are negative, it gives a false sense of security because there is an incubation period that can last up to 14 days,” she said.
The CMO added that quarantining people early and waiting on them to display symptoms has the added benefit of preventing them from transmitting the virus to others unknowingly, as the virus is believed to be transmissable during the early stages.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Centre last night, COVID-19 has infected 197, 000 people from about 155 countries. Almost 8,000 people have died globally.
Since January 31:
- 27 – persons in quarantine in a government facility.
- 52 – in home quarantine (does not include areas under quarantine in Bull Bay).
- 26 – persons in isolation in government facilities.