Christopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer

The training to use the recently-acquired COVID-19 genome sequencer, which was expected to begin on January 10, has been pushed back by at least a week, with no definitive date as to when that training will commence.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie gave the update while addressing Thursday's first COVID Conversation online press briefing for the new year.

“In terms of the genome sequencing machine, unfortunately we are not going to be up next week in terms of the training at the university [University of the West Indies],” said Bisasor-McKenzie.

“We were hoping that for January 10, they would have been ready to start training, and there has been a delay. We are hopeful that it will not be a delay of more than a week to start the process, and that the training process would involve them actually testing samples.”

A genome sequencing machine is used to determine the entire genetic makeup of a specific organism or cell type like those of the coronavirus.

The Government of Jamaica had previously acquired the genome sequencer in October, but it has yet to be commissioned because of a lack of trained personnel to operate it.

In November, it was reported that the Government had engaged the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to get a second genome sequencer.

Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton told Parliament in November that the second machine would be acquired through lease-funding from the CDC.

In the meantime, Bisasor-McKenzie told Thursday's briefing that while some samples which Jamaica had submitted for COVID-19 testing have yet to be returned, for those they have received to date, the omicron variant was not confirmed among them.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, Jamaica has recorded 98,194 cases, with 2,486 deaths from the virus.

Follow The Gleaner on Twitter and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com [2] or editors@gleanerjm.com [3].