Health Minister Carvin Malone and Premier Andrew Fahie announced during a radio broadcast Thursday night that two of the territory’s three confirmed COVID-19 cases returned a negative result after retesting.

Malone said the samples of those two patients were among eight others that returned a negative result when tested here in the territory.

Though the results all came back negative for this first retest, Premier Fahie said the BVI will have to wait for official verification from the Caribbean Public Health Association (CARPHA) who will conduct their own tests. CARPHA’s results are expected to return from Trinidad by Monday, April 13.

“There were six new tests and two of the persons who tested positive before also tested at that time because they were due based on the schedule in terms of retesting,” Premier Fahie explained.

“Two of the persons were those who confirmed as positive cases a few weeks ago in the BVI, and they have now gone through all the measures of the isolation and all the different possible treatments possible for them, and they have now tested negative,” he further said.

Confident in BVI’s testing capabilities

The Premier also expressed significant confidence in the BVI’s testing capabilities stating that he is almost certain the results from CARPHA will reflect those of the first testing.

“The record thus far has been [that] 100 percent of whatever the local tests turn out to be, that it stays consistent with the verification for CARPHA, and we pray God that it will remain the same in this case,” Fahie stated.

If the results from CARPHA also return as negative, the BVI will officially have only one confirmed case of COVID-19.