March 16, 2021
Ryvex, LLC (www.ryvex.net) in partnership with SD Biosensor (www.sdbiosensor.com) have donated over 20,000 rapid Antigen tests to the OECS member states and Barbados. The kits donated have been approved by the WHO. The kits are scheduled to arrive this week to the different beneficiary island nations.
In response to the COVID-19 crisis, the donation will strengthen testing response at the country level, improve services delivery capacity, support initiatives to break the chain of transmission of the illness and improve case detection and management.
Testing is the key to getting back to normal. One of Ryvex’s goals is to contribute on finding solutions to help stop the spread of COVID-19, particularly among vulnerable populations that have been disproportionately affected by this pandemic.
Barbados seemed to have avoided a destructive COVID-19 pandemic. The Caribbean nation, home to around 287 000 people, registered fewer than 400 cases of the disease for the whole of 2020. But January, 2021, saw a surge. By the end of the month, Barbados had registered well over 1000 new cases of COVID-19. On Feb 3, 2021, it went into lockdown. On the same day, Saint Lucia, an OECS member state, declared a state of emergency. It has confirmed more than three times as many cases of COVID-19 this year as it did last year. Like Barbados, Saint Lucia has imposed a nightly curfew on its 180 000 or so residents. Community transmission of COVID-19 has also been established in other parts of the Caribbean, including Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Ryvex remains committed in aiding with the efforts to contain the COVID19 pandemic in The Caribbean region through partnerships with public and private health institutions in the region.
Ryvex is the official distributor for SD Biosensor in The Caribbean region.