translated from Spanish: Minsal said public network has capacity and stock for PCR exams

The Ministry of Health (Minsal) said on Tuesday that the public network has the capacity and stock necessary for the conduct of COVID-19 PCR exams.” Given information from some private establishments that are not conducting PCR test analysis for confirmation #COVID_19, the Ministry of Health points out that in the public health network we have the necessary capacity and stock,” Minsal explained on its Twitter account.It should be remembered that today the Clinical Hospital of the University of Chile reported that due to the high demand for care recorded in recent days, there was a breakdown of national stock of a laboratory reagent, having temporarily suspended the sampling for the COVID-19 PCR exam. For their part, the clinics Santa María, Dávila and Vespucio reported that “the taking of outpatient PCR is suspended due to technical capacity problems”. UC Christus Health Network, meanwhile, explained that “due to the lack of inputs to process PCR screenings for COVID-19 detection, we are having a delay in delivering results.” Later, the Minsal – through a statement – stated that “when planning the strategy to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, and anticipating the increased demand for PCR test processing, the Ministry of Health managed the purchase of diagnostic kits and inputs, which today allows us to maintain a sufficient stock for the processing of such analyses.” Compared to what is pointed out by some private venues, we can say that in no case is there a national stock break. These are specific situations, not officially reported to the Ministry of Health, focusing on private laboratories and representing 15% of the total samples that are processed in the integrated network of laboratories,” he said. According to the Ministry of Health, more than 300 thousand PCR tests have been carried out in the country today, with a daily average of 6 thousand and that some days has been reached more than 13,000.” We reiterate to the community that the Ministry of Health has the capacity and stock of PCR exams in its public network to continue the sample process,” he concluded.

Original source in Spanish