Tobago’s covid19 testing capacity will soon be expanded thanks to the donation of some 15,000 antigen test kits from the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO)/World Health Organisation (WHO). The test kits arrived in Tobago on January 21.

A statement from the THA Division of Health, Wellness and Social Protection on Tuesday said the commitment for this donation was made by PAHO representative Dr Erica Wheeler at a virtual meeting with Secretary of Health Dr Faith BYisrael on December 15.

The statement quoted BYisrael as saying, “This is a significant development for which we are indeed grateful. These test kits will increase our testing capacity and ultimately improve our covid19 response on the island.”

She thanked Wheeler and her team for the donation.

“We will definitely put them to good use almost immediately.”

In an interview on TV6’s Morning Edition on December 24, 2021, BYisrael said her division was actively looking at increasing covid19 testing capacity through procuring rapid test kits.

At that time, BYisrael said she had already spoken with a few worldwide affiliates.

“I already started reaching out to some of our international partners to see if we can get additional testing kits donated. The answer thus far is yes. We now just have to wait for when we can get them in and when we can get them in quickly.”

She said, then, the world was moving away from doing PCR tests “Because they are so expensive, and because the numbers are so large, it just is unrealistic to think that we could do the PCR test for every single person who we think is infected.”

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