An opportunity for strengthening laboratories and health systems in the region.
Diagnostics and Laboratory capacity are essential but often ignored pillars of both a responsive health system and effective global health security.
The Coronavirus pandemic has, more starkly than ever before, highlighted the critical importance of accurate, reliable and timely laboratory testing for diagnosis, patient care and management and understanding the scope of viral transmission, thereby protecting national, regional and global health security. For those of us that live in the Caribbean, as we watched the COVID-19 pandemic sweep through Asia, Europe and the United States, on its way to our shores, many lessons have been highlighted – the DOs and DON’Ts of how to manage this pandemic emerged and are emerging day by day!