Faulty kits cause major COVID-19 testing delays

May 06, 2020 News

Hundreds of faulty kits are hampering the testing of suspected COVID-19 cases.

Hundreds of the RT PCR test kits for COVID-19 are unusable because they were poorly stored, effectively hampering plans to conduct countrywide testing.

According to well-placed sources, the Ministry of Public Health is working to fix the situation within the week.
The enzyme kits reportedly spoilt while being transported.
It was donated by Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO). PAHO/WHO Representative, Dr. William Adu-Krow, yesterday said that a matter is before him and he wants to gather more details before pronouncing on it.
There have been criticisms that Government has not been aggressive enough in carrying out testing on suspected cases.
In fact, on Monday, it was reported that the number of positive cases so far have reached 92 with nine deaths.
Some 639 tests were conducted with 56 persons in institutional isolation, seven in quarantine and 27 recovered cases.
There have been calls for more tests to be conducted with a number of mobile units and site established around the country.
With regards to the RT PCR test kits, Kaieteur news was told that Guyana has in excess of 7,000 which include primers and probes. It was noted that the tests are a three-part one.

Mobile testing units have been deployed around the country.

One of the parts is what is known as the enzyme kits. The Ministry had under 2,000 of those enzyme kits.
However, tests conducted found that enzyme tests did not meet the required quality level.
It was widely believed that the kits were badly stored in temperature during transport, which made it ineffective.
Permanent Secretary, Collette Adams, was not available for a comment yesterday.
However, Ministry officials said that they are hoping to have the matter resolved this week, so that a number of tests can be conducted.
On the other hand, two sources who work in the Health Ministry shared different takes on why the Ministry failed to conduct any new testing during the previous weekend. Both sources revealed that the National Reference Lab, which is responsible for conducting COVID-19 testing, ran out of primers and buffers—a component equipment of the testing kits.
One source said, “The COVID-19 testing kits consist of the primers, buffers, the swab and the two tubes which you insert your swab in. Step one is identifying your patient, after which you subsequently mark the patient, and then you go on to where the medical officials conduct swabbing. We… conduct the identification and swabbing and the Reference Lab would have the buffer, primer and the machine itself where they complete the testing.”
The source explained that the Health Ministry was informed that there was a need of new primers and buffers weeks before they ran out. He further noted that no measures are in place to substitute testing for COVID-19 without the equipment in place.
Another source said, “A few persons have died but because the results did not return in time, the information was not announced. Therefore, they died before their results came back; a 14-year-old was one of them. He was asthmatic… It’s quite scary right now…”

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