COVID-19 Tests and Testing Capabilities

Marvin Manzanero

So, as you heard just now, the Ministry of Health may be doing a more targeted approach in its testing in the coming weeks. The Director of Health Services says the ministry’s testing capacity is based on resources available.  Upwards of ninety tests per day can be undertaken and there are eight thousand test kits in stock.

Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Director of Health Services

“We can do ninety test per day on average and we can probably do more than that but that’s where we would put it and what’s the number of Fuvencio – total number of tests that we can do, for now? For now, close to eight thousand five hundred. Yes, it is closer to eight thousand. I had seen six thousand five hundred but supplies keep coming in on a weekly basis. So, we will have the ability to do eight thousand tests. Again, this is important because I see a lot of people saying that we are not testing enough. We have discussed this at length. I said the last time Monday and then we met with CARPHA that week that no country in the region is really doing random testing the way we are in the general population. So, they are basically doing targeted testing. There is not a magic number or a specific number of the population that you need to test to determine if you are point in fact free; that is determined by your epidemic.”

On the topic of COVID-19 tests, on Wednesday, the Central Medical Laboratory received three thousand viral swabs from the PAHO/WHO Belize country office.