The Chief Laboratory Technologist in the Ministry of Health, Mr. Elliot Samuel during yesterday’s press conference, took the time to explain why testing for variants of concern of COVID-19 aren’t done here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
“So there are those who would ask why aren’t testing for variants of concerns being done in St. Vincent and how possible it is to do that sort of testing here. A variant of concern testing is done through what is called genetic sequencing and that is a highly specialized testing area. CARPHA has just received the technical capacity to do, but still, I know a lot of the samples that go to CARPHA are referred to other laboratories for characterization”. Samuel said.
Mr. Samuel said that this is not something that a local lab would undertake due to the cost of implementation and the high skill level that is required that is not available at this time, as well as the amount of time needed.
The Chief Laboratory Technologist said that SVG like many other CARPHA member will continue to send positive COVID-19 samples to CARPHA for characterization.
