Fiji has enough consumables for COVID-19 tests, says Ministry of Health permanent secretary Dr James Fong.
The ministry’s Head of Health Protection, Dr Aalisha Sahukhan, said Fiji carried out two types of testing: the real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test which was carried out at the Fiji Centre for Disease Control is one of them.
She said the testing was a conventional one and was introduced in Fiji in March last year.
“The other one is the Cepheid GeneXpert express machine which is a type of PCR but was used in small containment unit,” she said.
“At the beginning of this year, we were able to decentralise this testing out of CDC, specifically the GenXpert to other labs in Fiji such as Colonial War Memorial Hospital, Twomey Hospital in Tamavua and Labasa Hospital which all contain these machines in their laboratory so they could do testing on site.
“Nevertheless, we understand that Fiji CDC was doing bulk of the testing simply because we had more of the GenXpert machine, more staff and the majority of the staff were dedicated towards COVID-19 testing.”
She said with the CDC offline earlier in the week, “we have had to rely more on the gene testing machines in these labs for the testing and we do have consumables both for RT-PCR and GenXpert, therefore, once CDC comes online again, we will be able to go to full capacity again”.
Dr Aalisha also said they were expecting new GenXpert machines early this week, which will also be channelled out to the divisional hospitals, increasing testing capacities.
