Rapid COVID-19 tests being carried out in Seychelles for people exiting 14-day isolation period
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(Seychelles News Agency) - Rapid tests for COVID-19 are being carried out at the Four Seasons Resort in Seychelles, as the 14-day quarantine period for people in isolation there comes to an end, a health official said on Thursday.
"We have received new rapid test kits which we are testing at the hotel. We carried out our first tests yesterday at Berjaya Beau Vallon Bay. This is a blood test and we have tested a total of 97 people and up until now all the results came out non-reactive," said Meggy Louange, the director-general of the Public Health Authority.
Louange told a press conference that the tests the authority has recently received are not the same as the one used to confirm if a person is positive or not.
"It is a screening test, which means that should we get any reaction when using the test, we will definitely proceed to PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) test where we use the throat swab to confirm if the person is positive with COVID-19," she explained.
Last week, the Department of Health received a consignment of PCR tests from the Jack Ma Ali Baba Foundation. In addition, Intelvision -- a local telecommunication company -- on Monday donated 25,000 rapid test kits to be used on three categories of persons: those in quarantine, infected persons in isolation, and health care workers and other professionals at ports of entry who may have been exposed to infected persons.
Since the epidemic started, the Seychelles' Department of Health has carried out 204 tests out of which 10 were positive. Nine of the patients are in stable conditions and one is still in a critical state, gradually improving.
"We are now in the process to test the positive patients so as to carry out procedures to discharge them. On Saturday April 4, it will be three weeks since our first case was reported," said Louange.
As of April 1, on the main island of Mahe, there are 89 patients under quarantine at Berjaya Beau Vallon Bay Resort in the north, 16 in quarantine at Perseverance and 133 in home quarantine. There are five on home quarantine on Praslin.
