MOH to Start Use Rapid Testing for COVID-19

With the number of cases out of control, the Ministry of Health today announced its intention to start using antigen rapid testing for COVID-19 using established protocols.  Doctor Marvin Manzanero says that after completing a validation exercise with the SD Biosensor Antigen testing kit and following international recommendations, use of this antigen testing kit will only be applicable and is recommended for persons who are symptomatic and close contacts of a confirmed case. Manzanero says that at this time the Ministry is unable to endorse or validate any other rapid testing kit for use in other categories of the population.

Marvin Manzanero

Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Director of Health Services

“We have asked all importers that they must go through the process which means they must tell us where they are buying from so we can verified that those match because we know that they can be falsified. The two entities that have brought in the SD Biosensor have brought in from supplies in Miami. The Ministry of Health is not using a second buyer. The last batch that we got was through PAHO and we now have quotations from UNICEF to be able to get the cheapest price  but we have no intention of using none of the suppliers that will start to import. I can tell you that there is significant amount of people that are asking to import rapid test kits. We will still swab people at day fourteen. If you are positive we will swab you again at day twenty-eight. Now why is there a gap? Because we are finding out that people who are positive at day fourteen a good amount of them are still positive at day twenty one so it is becoming overwhelming for the staff to be able to keep up with all the resting as you discover more and more numbers. So that memo will go out to all the public setting to be able to be reviewed.”