Commencement of in country testing for Covid-19 of front line workers
BEGINS
NEWS RELEASE
Commencement of in country testing for Covid-19 of front line workers
The Ministry of Health, Agriculture, Sports & Human Services wishes to advise the general public that following the commencement of in country testing for Covid-19, testing of front-line workers has commenced effective June 8th 2020 and is presently ongoing.
Testing is being conducted by the Turks & Caicos Islands National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) with the following groups being prioritized; suspected cases of Covid-19, contacts of confirmed cases, clients being referred overseas through the Treatment Abroad Programme, domestic travelers and frontline workers in that order. The method of Covid-19 testing being utilized by the NPHL is PCR (polymerase chain reaction) which is the gold standard test for the diagnosis of Covid-19.
As a part of the testing protocol, frontline workers will be tested once. Subsequent tests will depend on the development of symptoms. The turn-around-time, which is the amount of time between the receipt of a specimen by the lab and the availability of results, is approximately 48 hours. This turnaround time applies to all samples, however urgent samples have a faster turnaround time.
Persons with symptoms of Covid-19 (which include fever and other respiratory symptoms such as cough and shortness of breath), are reminded to stay at home and contact the Ministry of Health hotlines on 232 9444 or 333 0911. Please also visit the Ministry of Health website for up to date information on Covid-19 https://www.gov.tc/moh/coronavirus/.
END