Executive Director of the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) Dr. Joy St. John
A regional public health agency still recommends polymerase chain reaction testing, also known as the PCR test, at this stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Caribbean.
“The reason why we support PCR only is because it is going to give you the best rate of true positives and true negatives,” Executive Director of the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) Dr. Joy St. John declared.
She was at the time participating in the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association (CHTA) Live: The Resilience Series – Understanding & Adjusting to New Traveller Testing Requirements by the US, UK and Canada yesterday.
While the PCR test results can take days, the rapid antigen test (RAT), or rapid test can deliver results in less than 15 minutes, but there are questions about its accuracy.
“You can get rapid antigen test of a certain standard that will give you at least 90 per cent sensitivity and specificity, but it does have a serious issue with false negatives. This gives the person receiving that result a false sense of hope, and raises the risk of the person going about their normal activities and spreading it rapidly,” she said, while pointing out that at the World Health Organization/Pan American Health Organization level there has been the recommendation for rapid antigen test, but under strict conditions.
“And they have not said that it should be used for diagnostics at the ports of entry,” she added.
Dr. St John praised the Caribbean’s level of preparedness. She made it clear that a properly conducted PCR test demands a high-level lab capacity, and acumen of the registered laboratory technologist.
“And we have 22 out of 26 CARPHA member states having that capacity. That’s totally amazing,” she told the panel.
“And some countries have diversified, so they have the private sector supporting for non-public health matters like travel and so on. And apart from that CARPHA continues to test; continues to support the countries. Before these requirements we were doing secondary testing for the countries that have implemented the rapid antigen testing”.
Dr. St. John also reiterated that CARPHA recommends the quarantine of all contacts of individuals with a confirmed or probable COVID-19 test at home, hotel, government facility for 14 days from their last exposure.
Furthermore, she emphasised that quarantine travellers should remain in designated hotels or accommodations facilities only; restrict to a specific geographic area; restrict activities or excursions; follow all other public health protocols, hygiene, and preventive measures during quarantine; and produce a negative PCR test result to exit quarantine.
“We have seen already that there is a requirement in some of the countries that have instituted the need for PCR or rapid antigen test 72 hours before travel. But the test tells your status at that point in time, but if you have your test and immediately go and interact with a lot of people that you don’t know without using your mask and you do not sanitize, you may contract COVID. So, the quarantine is the way to ensure that someone who is “cooking” COVID and not showing COVID is detected in a safe situation”. (TL)