- Minister of Health, Terrence Deyalsingh, announced news regarding COVID-19 testing kits. He stated that there are currently 8000 BGI Test Kits from China and an order for 20,000 has been placed. These tests are scheduled to come in by next month.
- Regarding the Abott System, Minister Deyalsingh indicated that 8000 kits have arrived from the United States ahead of schedule and have been distributed, with 3000 kits being received by the South West Regional Health Authority. This means that the SWRHA will now have the capacity to do their own PCR testing by Friday this week. Another 28,800 of these test kits are expected to arrive in October. He also stated that there are 160,000 Antigen Testing Kits in supply.
- The Health Minister indicated that the Trinidad and Tobago Government would have invested a total of TT$23.9 million in test kits for this phase of the COVID-19 response to increase detection and treatment and decentralize testing.
- Technical Director of the Epidemiological Division of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Avery Hinds, spoke on the capacity levels of the different buildings used for the COVID-19 response. He stated that Hospitalization sites are at 40% capacity, Step Down Sites are at 38% capacity and the Suspect Ward, that houses those awaiting test results but who also need treatment for respiratory ailments is at 48% capacity.
- Minister Deyalsingh, when answering a question about sanitization companies, stated that no company requires approval from the Ministry for sanitization practices, there are standard chemicals to be used.
