What’s the Delay in Results on Variant Test?

Melissa Diaz Musa

A third wave is possible, especially with the new COVID variant detected in the region; the UK variant has been identified in Mexico.  Meanwhile, in Belize, we are still awaiting results from samples sent to Baylor College and Caribbean Public Health Agency, CARPHA, to determine if any of the new variants are in the country.  So, when can we expect those results? Doctor Diaz Musa says that it will take another week.

Dr. Melissa Diaz Musa, Acting Director of Health Services

“In Belize, we can’t and in many countries, the gene sequencing cannot be done. There’s a lot of specialized equipment to do the gene sequencing. We had partnered with Baylor College in Houston so they have about three hundred of our swabs at this point and CARPHA also has ten of our swabs and that’s the quota that they give – different countries have different quota and Belize has been given ten swabs a month. So we’ve kept in constant contact with Baylor and they are in the process of doing the gene sequencing, but they have asked us to give them another week or so in order for us to get some of the preliminary results from the swabs that they currently have. So it is just waiting to hear.”

When it comes to receiving vaccines, via the COVAX facility, Doctor Diaz Musa says that Belize is to get thirty percent of its population, which is roughly one hundred and twenty thousand. In the first of three shipments, three percent of the Astrazeneca Vaccine is expected to arrive in Belize sometime between the end of March and the first week in April.