 The capacity of the state-run Ezra Long Laboratory to respond to COVID-19 has been significantly boosted following a donation by the St. Lucia Electricity Services Limited, Lucillec. Lucillec has contributed more than $160,000 to the Ezra Long Lab. This is the second donation the company has made to aid the lab in testing for COVID-19. More in this report. The ability to test quickly for COVID-19 is a critical part of the national response to the virus. This is especially so for health officials managing cases in this fourth wave. And that's where the Ezra Long Laboratory at the Owen King EU Hospital comes in. It is tasked with a 24-hour turnaround of test results. Laboratory director Dr. Wayne Felicier says it is a commitment the lab has been able to meet with the assistant of the St. Lucia Electricity Services Limited, Lucillec. Lucillec thankfully has done a second donation to the Ezra Long Lab and my extension to St. Lucia to assist in the testing of COVID-19. And this has gone a long way to us trying to meet our turnaround time of 24 hours in terms of testing. That contribution alone has gone a long way to reducing the spread over this period of time between the months of August and September. The numbers are high. We can't get around that. The positivity rate is high comparatively but we think it could have been a lot worse if we did not have these extra resources just to facilitate proper testing. The director is speaking of a more than $160,000 donation of test kits and consumables donated by Lucillec in July. It enabled the lab to deliver COVID-19 results in quick time. Dr. Felicier says testing and providing results quickly are critical steps in managing national COVID-19 infections. When you look comparatively, when you look at January, February, when we had significant backlogs. We were extending our turnaround to 60s sometimes and accumulated samples of almost 1,200,500. We were able to turn around samples within 24 hours. Eliminating backlogs, persons getting the results within a reasonable time frame and a lot of companies, government services, police able to make decisions in real time as opposed to having six-day time lapses and having persons in the community who have been exposed developing positivity and back-stention spread in the virus. This is the second donation Lucillec has made to increase the testing capacity of the facility. Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sharon Belma George says Lucillec's donation has really assisted in managing the cases in a very timely manner. Lucillec has been supporting our testing capacity at the Azure Long Lab and this isn't the first time but this second donation of test kits and consumables to the Azure Long Lab is very significant and if you look at our management of this fourth wave where we've noted a vast increase of cases within a shorter period of time, this is the most cases we've managed, our testing capacity per day has gone up to up to over 500 per day and the lab has been able to maintain the 24-hour turnaround time and this is because of the support of Lucillec. So the testing kits and the consumables they've ensured that we've kept in terms of our stock and we've been able to facilitate the turnaround time. We have not had a lag in terms of our resources or the accumulation of samples from not being able to test and this has really assisted us in managing the cases and their contacts in a very timely manner. So we are extremely grateful for that level of collaboration with Lucillec. Testing is a necessary and expensive part of managing COVID-19 on Ireland. Lucillec Managing Director Trevor Luise says it is for this reason that the company responded quickly to such requests from the Ezra Long Laboratory. The two donations made to improve testing capacity at the lab totals over a quarter of a million dollars. Each COVID-19 test costs approximately 150 US dollars and is provided free of charge at respiratory clinics across the island. From the Government Information Service, Lisa Joseph reporting.