"Some of them will be used today (Sunday – BNS), and tomorrow we really hope to receive new ones (reagents – BNS). There might be no testing stoppage at all. (…) We really hope to receive them on Monday," Vytautas Zimnickas told BNS on Sunday, adding that not all samples might be tested on Sunday.
"We will probably not test the ones we have taken at mobile checkpoints today and we will leave reagents for … medical establishments," he told BNS.
The Health Ministry said on Sunday that, all in all, 2,086 koronavirus samples have already been tested in Lithuania, and 384 samples were taken on Saturday, with Zimnickas saying that "we will try to keep the same pace".
Meanwhile, Vice Minister of Health Algirdas Seselgis said on Saturday there were 1,300 remains reagents. The Health Ministry plans to provide more detailed information later on Sunday and explain the discrepancy in these numbers.
Zimnickas said reagents are already underway from China and the United Kingdom.
"They are underway. I have morning information that the plane is underway, bringing over 5,000 reagents. Where it is now I cannot say. We see that the shipment is on the plane from China. It left yesterday. It should be somewhere in Europe today," the laboratory director said, adding that reagents for 10,000 tests are underway to Lithuania via "two or three channels".
"The other channel is from a closer point (from the UK – BNS)," Zimnickas said.
In his words, the delivery of reagents is facing problems due to disruptions in the supply chain.