With the steady increase of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases, there are calls being made for health authorities here to accelerate and expand testing in order to obtain a clearer view of where the virus is circulating and how many people have been infected.
Health experts have underlined increased testing as one of the key actions that could be taken to win the battle against the deadly pandemic. Accelerating and expanding testing in the early stages of discovering the virus is very crucial so as to better guide policy makers, health partners and health-care workers in containing the spread of the virus.
We have seen in countries around the world where testing took a long time to take off how the virus was able to spread rapidly. On the other hand, there were huge success rates for countries like Germany, South Korea, New Zealand, Singapore and others, as they were able to test and isolate far more widely than some countries. They also rapidly stockpiled kits and made the test available to a larger number of labs which allowed for more persons to be tested and diagnosed early.
There are two main reasons for testing people early – to have individual diagnosis, and to determine how far the virus has spread so that the authorities could isolate and track those persons who may have come into contact with someone who was tested positive before others are infected. Information garnered from testing could also be very useful in helping health-care partners plan to deal with the demand for intensive care units and other critical medical supplies.
There are media reports recently that the Ministry of Public Health in Guyana did not conduct any tests in two days. Statistics released by the Public Health Ministry on Sunday showed that the same figures have been repeated on its dashboard for 48 hours. It showed that 582 tests were conducted – the same number as the previous day.
If this is indeed true, it is unacceptable; especially considering the fact that the Government has extended the lockdown measures for another month on the basis that positive COVID-19 cases are rising and the country is not at a place where life could return to normalcy anytime soon.
In recent times, concerns have been raised that more persons might be carrying the virus unknowingly, since the virus can manifest asymptomatically. But the Ministry has contended that only individuals with signs and symptoms of the disease or those who had been in contact with a positive case are viable for testing.
Guyana is currently conducting COVID-19 tests at a rate of less than one per cent of the population. Even with limited testing, there has been a stark 110 per cent increase in the number of positive cases in less than one month.
Last month, a decision was taken to allow private institutions to conduct testing for the novel coronavirus. We had said at the time that this was a step in the right direction as it would increase the number of persons being tested. However, soon after that decision was made, the Government Analyst-Food and Drug Department (GA-FDD) said that it would only be permitting reagents and testing kits approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) or “a serious reference authority”.
Every effort should be made by health officials to urgently investigate and take any report very seriously of persons experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. It is only by ramping up testing, stringent isolation and contact tracing that the authorities would be able to get a handle of the virus.
No one ever imagined dealing with a pandemic of this magnitude and certainly no country was prepared to give the kind of response that is needed in such a situation. However, by now, there is quite a lot of information and models available that health officials here could find useful in order to modify and strengthen their response to the virus, especially as it relates to testing for the virus.
With another month of being under lockdown and the absence of any proper relief measures being offered to citizens, Guyanese will continue to face even more severe hardships. The Government seems to be deaf to the pleas by citizens for assistance. Limited testing to find out exactly where we are at the moment will only compound the problem as uncertainty and frustration will grow.
