BELIZE CITY, Fri. Apr. 10, 2020– In the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, some countries have done outstandingly well. These countries have fared well, not because the novel coronavirus did not affect them, but because of their farsighted, well-coordinated response to the threats posed by the COVID-19 crisis. One such country is South Korea, which recently agreed to ship 600,000 test kits to the United States after President Donald Trump appealed to the Government of South Korea.
Last month, however, the Government of Belize decided not to accept 25,000 test kits that South Korea was providing to Belize through the auspices of SICA, the Central American Integration System, which brokered the agreement to provide the region with the COVID-19 test kits.
In his webcast “Meet the Experts,” Director of Health Services Dr. Marvin Manzanero stated the following on Friday: “The 24th of March is when we got an initial request for potential donation of kits. We were not sure whether they were testing kits or what kind of kits they were. We requested for further advice on the matter, and they sent us the specifications of the kits that they could have donated to us. We understood it to be from the South Korean government to the region.
“When that came about, because we have to work with what the lab does, we had said to the lab: ‘Can you review the specification? Is this something we’re going to be able to work with?’ And they had three basic concerns, which is general compatibility of reagent components with the primers and probes – and I’m reading textually what is written — whether they were compatible with the enzymes that they were using, whether the tests had been validated in the region. They said basically, on advice from the various international forums or web discussions so that we are able to establish performance characteristics based on our population and the third concern because – again I had mentioned the issue of training — if any training or specialized knowledge was needed for preparation of master mixes, is that going to be provided since the labs said they had no knowledge of this testing kit that was being given that we had gotten an initial note.
“Further to the note, and we have the PDF document that came with it, one of actually the testing kits —it draws my attention— it says from the same patent, it says: ‘We are waiting for the emergency usage authorization from the Korean CDC.’ That’s what it says, and then it also says that both test kits are still waiting for authorization from the US FDA for use, so those are little footnotes that I think made us indicate to the respective ministry that was in communication with CABEI that what we were looking for is, and we said the specific platform, this is what we are using.
“This is where our staff has been trained, because you understand that accepting test kits, you have to find out if you have the equipment, you have the testing capability, whether those have been validated, whether we need any specific calibration measures for the machines that we use and even if we procure a new machine the maintenance capability is in country.”
In a government press release issued on Tuesday, April 14, the Office of the Prime Minister confirmed that on Saturday, April 11, Prime Minister Barrow called the Premier of Grand Cayman, Alden McLaughlin, and Barrow was assured that Belize can obtain as many test kits as it needs.
The release also said that Belize had received 2500 test kits from PAHO and that an additional 11,500 kits is expected from the organization.
Belize also ordered 4,000 test kits from Roche Agency in Guatemala, the release said, and 2,000 out of that amount is expected to arrive in the country this week.
The government release said that the Office of the Prime Minister is in consultation with the Ministry of Health to determine how many kits will be procured from Grand Cayman, since the kits are compatible with the standards that are in use in Belize.
Feature photo: Dr. Marvin Manzanero