THE Sheriff Medical Centre, located on Sheriff Street, Georgetown, is currently seeking validation and approval from the Ministry of Health before it can offer Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test for the COVID-19 virus.

“We haven’t done a lot of PCR tests…We tried to only use it internally (because) we’re still in the process of validation and engaging the ministry,” a representative from the private medical facility told the Guyana Chronicle on Sunday.

The representative, who did not want to reveal his name, also assured that the centre was offering only antigen tests, though he admitted that they had previously offered “a limited amount” of PCR tests.

This medical centre, in November last year, advertised that it was offering PCR testing for persons desirous of getting the test done. Additionally, when the Guyana Chronicle called and inquired in November, it was related that they were indeed offering it.

On Sunday, however, the Ministry of Health issued a public notice in the local newspapers indicating that only the National Public Health Reference laboratory and the Eureka Medical Laboratories Inc. (another private establishment) was approved to offer the COVID-19 PCR tests for international travel.

This type of test is the ‘gold standard’ test used to diagnose whether someone is affected with COVID-19. The Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, had said that private facilities are at various stages of engaging the ministry on getting approval to offer PCR testing.

He had explained that for a private institution to gain approval, their facilities would be assessed and deemed fit. The assessment would cover whether the institution has a PCR machine; biohazard cabinets used for the extraction of the samples, and also if there is adequately trained staff

Sheriff Medical, the Balwant Singh’s Hospital Laboratory, Eureka Medical Laboratories, the Dr. Leslie Persaud Clinic and Diagnostic Centre and the Woodlands Hospital Limited Laboratory are all listed by the Health Ministry as facilities which offer the antigen test only.

These antigen tests, though not the same as the ‘gold standard’ PCR tests, are able to detect the presence of COVID-19, and not merely the presence of the antibodies produced by the body to help fight off the virus. Director of the COVID-19 Task Force, Colonel Nazrul Hussain, during a previous interview with the Guyana Chronicle, highlighted that once private institutions have been granted the licence to offer PCR testing, they would have to report how many tests are being done and what those results are to the COVID-19 authorities. The total number of tests done daily, as well as the total number of positive cases recorded, are put into a COVID-19 database and are disseminated daily by the Health Ministry.