Basseterre, St. Kitts, March 17, 2020 (ZIZ News): Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Hazel Laws says the federation has already implemented protocols for testing for the Novel Coronavirus or COVID-19.
During a recent meeting with tourism stakeholders, Dr. Laws says the government is using a two-phase process to test for COVID-19.
“Our protocol speaks to a two-tier testing,” she said “whereby samples are taken off and sent to the Caribbean Public Health Agency and then also samples can be sent to our local private lab who is providing local testing capability for COVID-19.”
Dr. Laws emphasized that to date there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the federation and the government is doing everything it can to ensure that the virus does not breach our borders.
In the meantime, she is calling on everyone to get in the habit of practicing proper hand hygiene to limit the spread should it become detected in the federation.