Basseterre, St. Kitts, April 06, 2020 (SKNIS): An emergency meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) was held on April 06, 2020, to discuss matters pertaining to COVID-19 including the global test kit shortage.

“We are now facing a dilemma where on the one hand the WHO and other premiere world agencies are telling you to test, which is what we need to do, but at the same time there is the reality dawning that tests supply would be an issue,” said Minister of State with responsibility for Heath, the Honourable Wendy Phipps.

“However, we reiterate that we reserved testing for persons who are suspected cases. In our jurisdiction, as with the rest of the world, 95 percent of the transmissions are coming from this group. Only five percent of the transmissions are coming from persons without symptoms,” she said.

Minister Phipps reported that the meeting informed the membership that some one million test kits have been ordered by PAHO to be used on the people of the English-speaking Caribbean as well as Latin American countries that are covered by PAHO.

“This supply will begin drop shipping into our member states as of next week, but of course you can appreciate that it is a large order so it will be done on a staggered basis. So, that is some good news that we are keeping our fingers crossed on,” she said.

In the interim, CARICOM, PAHO and CARPHA will be issuing separate media statements on the state of play in the region as it relates to testing and supplies, said the Honourable Wendy Phipps.

Minister Phipps stated that hopefully there will be a point where “we will be willing and able to test even the asymptomatic ones because it also means that during the time of the incubation period and beyond you could have a situation where you have no symptoms, but then you might be contagious to others.”

“For clarity and as a reminder our premiere facility, our laboratory that confirms cases of COVID, is the Caribbean Public Heath Agency (CARPHA) and of course these tests are PCR based tests,” said Minister Phipps. “These are not the rapid tests you are hearing about like the ones coming out of China, which has received so much press. These are confirmed laboratory protocols where step is taken to give you as detailed a pathology as possible on the samples that are sent in order for us to come to you, as needs be, to tell you whether a case is confirmed or not beyond a shadow of a doubt.”

The Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) of the CARICOM seeks to promote and develop coordinated policies and programmes to improve living and working conditions and to take measures to facilitate the promotion of harmonious labour and industrial relations in the Community.