Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, 31 March 2020. CARPHA’s Medical Microbiology Laboratory, as the regional reference laboratory tests suspected COVID-19 cases for 18 of its Member States. Samples can only be sent to CARPHA from the designated national public health laboratory in a country. Once samples are received, CARPHA will produce the results within 24-48 hours.
COVID-19 results are immediately sent to the Chief Medical Officers at the Ministries of Health, who are responsible for the dissemination.
CARPHA cannot and will not disseminate any country’s results directly to patients or individuals. It is an ethical breach and constitutes a violation of the Agency's ethical standards to share confidential patient information with unauthorized persons.
In light of this, we ask that physicians and members of the public refrain from calling CARPHA for test results. Persons should contact their local Ministry of Health to ascertain what is the process for getting COVID-19 test results.