The World Health Organisation this week pleaded with health departments across Europe to ‘test, test, test’ to combat the spread of coronavirus. South Korea is said to be leading the way in terms of coronavirus testing – checking up to 15,000 people a day and experts say they have seen a drop in cases.
Drive-through testing centres have also been set up across Europe. But in Jersey not everyone is tested – even if they exhibit symptoms.
Only the vulnerable, elderly and those returning from ‘tier one and two countries’ are tested at the moment. A testing centre has been set up at Five Oaks but it is referral-only.
In the UK only those who are hospitalised are tested, according to Dr Ivan Muscat, the Island’s deputy medical officer of health, ‘due to enormous pressures’.
Dr Muscat said there were plans to keep testing in Jersey by the end of the month. Currently swabs have to be sent to the UK for analysis and Dr Muscat said there is a ‘ceiling’.
‘There is a ceiling on the amount of testing we can undertake both due to the capacity locally and in the UK,’ he said.
Asked if that distorted the figures that show just six people have tested positive from 299 completed checks in Jersey, Dr Muscat acknowledged it was very likely the number of cases was actually higher.
In the UK there have been about 2,000 confirmed cases but Sir Patrick Valance, the UK government’s senior scientific adviser, said there was likely to be at least 55,000 people infected.
Dr Muscat said: ‘We are not in a position to undertake surveillance for COVID-19. We are in a position where we have to focus our testing where there is an epidemiological link to COVID.
‘There is a ceiling and we need to be careful not to go through that ceiling bearing in mind the UK is under enormous pressure – much more than us – in relation to their testing capacity. If we try to breach that ceiling we will simply garner a bad reaction.
‘There is limitation to testing in the UK much more than here. In the UK they are only testing people admitted to hospital. They are not testing in the community, we are. At the moment we are dependant on the UK which is one of the reasons we are actively seeking to do testing on-Island.’
