Ten samples sent to CARPHA to test for new COVID-19 variants cleared

Feb 12, 2021 News

The Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony

Kaieteur News – The Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, yesterday announced that the 10 samples that were sent to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) to test for the new variants of COVID-19 were all cleared.
This means that none of the new variants were detected in any of the samples sent to CARPHA. “Last night CARPHA informed us that the 10 samples that we sent to them, they’ve been able to complete the gene sequencing and they haven’t found any of the new variants that are currently talked about,” Dr. Anthony stated.
He further announced that the variants that were being tested for were; the variant first discovered in the United Kingdom referred to as the B-117 variant, the South African 501Y.V2 and the Brazilian variant known as P.1.
The samples were sent to CARPHA since last month, as Guyana lacks the capacity to test for the new variants in both the private and public health sector. The samples are tested using genetic sequencing and when they were sent, Dr. Anthony had stated that the testing would take more than a week, however, the testing took longer and persons were questioning the delay.
In response to their concerns earlier this week, Dr. Anthony noted that genetic sequencing is a complicated task, which can take some amount of time and since the test samples were sent to CARPHA, the Ministry would have to wait on the agency’s delivery of those results.
The Minister had also noted that cases of the new strains have already been recorded in the Caribbean region. At that time he stated, “Yesterday, the Ministry of Health in Trinidad and Tobago reported that they have identified the B117 variant in their homeland. They have reported that and so we are now alerted. This probably is the second case that we have had in the Caribbean, with the first being in Jamaica and now we have one in Trinidad, and I suspect once we start doing the genetic sequencing, we will find similar cases in other countries.”
Even though the test samples were cleared, the government official still urged for there to be vigilance. “We will still have to continue sending samples out to them just to get a sense of what’s circulating here in Guyana,” Dr. Anthony said.
Currently, the government is engaging with the Pan American Health Organization to send more samples for testing of the new variants to the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in the United States. This engagement comes as a measure to increase the number of samples being sent out for testing since Guyana’s health system lacks the capacity.

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