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COVID tests backlog being cleared
Article by January 21, 2021
Public health authorities have made “significant progress” in chipping away at the backlog of COVID-19 test results, Prime Minister Mia Mottley declared Wednesday, revealing that she has personally overseen the testing at the Government’s laboratory.
The Government had introduced a four-tier priority system to tackle the backlog that in some cases had led to people waiting over ten days for results, as the Prime Minister also indicated that new rapid antigen and rapid PCR tests had helped to erase the backlog.
She said both the United Kingdom and the United States – which are now requiring travellers to produce negative COVID-19 tests on arrival – have agreed to accept both tests.
January 12, 2021
A new Ministry of Health system is expected to make headway in clearing the large backlog of COVID-19 test results, starting from Tuesday, Senior Medical Officer of Health Dr Anton Best has declared.
In a COVID-19 update from Ilaro Court on Monday, Dr Best said a new four-tier system announced on Friday had begun in earnest on Monday, with results expecting to benefit from the new process as early as Tuesday.
Dr Best said: “We expect to see improvements right away. We have started the categorization process, where we have identified sites for the Category 1; Category 1 is the priority samples that we will be receiving, and those samples will be prioritized, and those samples will be out within 24 hours [after] being received by the lab.
Article by Social Share
Barbados will soon have a dedicated health communications team to better inform the country about all matters related to the spread and treatment of COVID-19.
The team is being set up to ease some of the pressure off Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, Minister of Health Jeffrey Bostic, chairman of the Cabinet COVID-19 Sub-committee Senator Dr Jerome Walcott, and public health officials.
Ambassador to the United Nations (UN), former minister of health Liz Thompson, is being brought back to the island to be part of the team, along with president of the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners, Dr Lynda Williams; communications and marketing specialist Tyson Henry, who is based in Dominica, and a fourth person who is being targeted, Mottley said during a national address from Ilaro Court on Friday.
The Barbadian Government is redoubling efforts to keep coronavirus cases under control by amending the COVID-19 directives.
Speaking from Ilaro Court on Friday n