Two private labs have been approved to conduct testing for clearance and exit screening. This was disclosed by the Minister of Health, Wellness and the Environment Hon. St. Clair Prince during a press conference yesterday.
“Some private laboratories have indicated their willingness to participate in clearance and exit screening” The Minister said.
Minister Prince said there had been a lot of complaints with regards to tardy test results, with persons being unhappy with not being able to leave due their test not being on time, but said the Ministry is trying its best to correct this. He said the late results are due to the large increase in testing that has taken place in recent weeks.
He then goes on to discuss the two private labs that have stepped up to lighten the burden of clearance and exit screening.
“Thus far there is one private lab with the approved capacity to do PCR tests for clearance and exit screening. An additional private lab has indicated its willingness to conduct rapid antigen testing for exit screening for persons travelling to the USA.”
The Minister of Health said that Sigma Medical Laboratory Inc. will be specializing in conducting the PCR testing as well as Rapid Antigen Testing, while Caribbean Reference Laboratory (CRL) will be approved to conduct Rapid Antigen Testing only.
“So if you have a problem waiting for it from the Milton Cato lab, the MLU, the Molecular Laboratory Unit, you can go directly to one of these labs and do your testing.” The Minister of Health said.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines has recorded a total of 798 cases as of the most recent report received from NEMO. 631 of these cases are active. There are 657 local cases of COVID-19, the majority of which are linked to various clusters. Two COVID-19 related deaths have been recorded and a total of 165 confirmed recoveries have been recorded.
