BVI now seeking 20,000 additional COVID-19 test kits — Malone
Government has revealed plans to secure an additional 20,000 COVID-19 test kits for the British Virgin Islands to ramp up territory-wide testing.
This comes amid the announcement by Minister for Health Carvin Malone that a passenger who travelled from the BVI to St Vincent last week had tested positive for COVID-19 upon arrival.
“The laboratory currently has capacity to conduct over 3,000 COVID-19 tests in-house and is actively seeking to purchase an additional 20,000 testing kits with the assistance of Public Health England,” Minister Malone stated.
He also listed the categories of persons that will receive frequent testing for the virus.
These include persons who meet the case definition for COVID-19, all emergency room admissions, all hospital inpatients, all persons undergoing surgery, and persons requiring COVID-19 tests for travel.
The minister said healthcare workers are tested based on exposure risk. Other categories of persons who are tested locally include persons being detained who entered the territory illegally, health professionals who request COVID-19 testing, and all returning residents exiting mandatory quarantine.
However, medical practitioner and former legislator Dr Kedrick Pickering recommends that the territory expand testing beyond those select categories.
In a recent radio interview, Dr Pickering called on government to perform coronavirus tests on every resident in the territory. He said the time has come for the territory to be ‘a little more proactive’ on the matter.
The BVI Health Services Authority has tested a total of 741 individuals for COVID-19, with 733 negative results and eight positive results. The BVI presently does not have any official record of active COVID-19 cases.
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If you can’t test with the 3,000 plus that youall reported that you have, then what you going do with 20,000. Store them up till they go outdated. Use 1000 of the 3000 or more you have and lets see progress.
I commend the BVI Government for always being proactive in the middle of this Covid-19 problem. No country is without problems in this time but BVI has managed to keep the BVI problems to a minimum. That’s outstanding.
We kept problems to a minimum? We are acting pro-actively?
The whole country is going bankrupt. There is NO plan to manage the economy for the next few months.
What are you talking about.
I was honestly wondering if “My take” was drunk
I thought there were no Covid cases in the BVI. That’s what the government has been saying. That’s why the borders are closed. That’s why returning residents have to quarantine. This has all been a smoke and mirror show for the illiterate of the island. There is Covid everywhere. Telling people there is no Covid is a lie. If there isn’t any Covid in the Territory then why is there a curfew? Why is there a need for masks? Wake up people and understand that everyone world wide needs to wear masks, wash and social distance. This isn’t going away till there is a vaccine. Stop the nonsense open the Territory and live with taking the proper precautions.
You see the 2 cases that they say tested positive PR but by time they tested here were negative? think about it and sort it out for yourself
Open the Territory for everyone drop dead? You need to encourage everyone in the Territory to follow protocol. They need to test the ones that is pack up in the clubs and bars that is up in each other’s faces talking and spewing saliva particles in each other faces.
We going to put you on the front line first for the first 30 days by yourself and if all goes well with you then we open up.
This case with a VI-St. Lucia- SVG connection should raise some serious concerns. The case may indicate that there are asymptomatic carriers of Covid-19 in the VI and that though they are not showing any symptoms can infect others. Though government has done a good job in keeping the numbers relatively low (8 confirmed cases with 1 death), it should have and should be doing more testing and contact tracing.
Based on a 34,000 population, the VI has tested 741 people, which equates to approx 2% of the population and about 2 people per capita. In order to do more effective monitoring, testing needs to be ramped up significantly, eg, at least triple the current number. It is encouraging that 20,000 more tests are being procured. What was the tall pole in the tent in the slow and low procurement?
@Diaspora
You are contradicting yourself.You cannot on one hand say the government is doing a good job in keeping the numbers relatively low and then say they are under-testing.
The more you test, the more you know. We have been under-testing from the beginning and the main reason why those numbers are going up is because of people requiring the test for their destination. Otherwise we would be still around 300…Ridiculous.
Based on what I have heard I also suspect under-reporting as well as under-testing. I maintain from day one these guys have not done a good job, my position has not changed. Add to that we have no plan for the economy that is on the verge of collapse.
@Tongue Fu, do agree that there is a difference among good, outstanding, superb, and excellent.
I would more inclined to believe that there has been quite a bit of illegal entry given that we actually have arrested several persons for illegal entry and have a boat load of folks on a seized boat related to illegal entry…and that how the Covid arrived back in the BVI
“WHIPPED INTO ACTION” Are they slaves???
I wonder if, having made a decision not to do widespread testing and being 7 months down the line, if antibody testing would be better, to get an idea of who may have had it?
This is getting ridiculous. Old and vulnerable people wear masks and look after your selves. The rest, should get on with their lives. It doesn’t even harm or effect most of us.The regular Flu is just as dangerous and a threat to vulnerable and old people. We don’t close down an entire island when someone catches the flu! WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE!!!!!! Wake up people!!!! No change will come until they have sold us this VACCINE!!! I wish they would just get on with it and end our suffering!
Covid is no longer even an epidemic, open up and let us work