Officials remain tight-lipped regarding delays with its new lab that’s designed to detect variants of COVID-19.

The process, known as genome sequencing, is credited with finding both the UK and South African variants of the virus.

The lab was supposed to be up and running last week but that’s now been pushed to the end of the month.

On Monday, neither Dr. Janice Fitzgerald, Health Minister John Haggie nor Premier Furey knew what the holdup was.

Fitzgerald said she couldn’t answer the question, Haggie said he knew as much as Fitzgerald, and Furey said they would “endeavour” to provide an answer at some point.

Either way, Fitzgerald said having the local lab wouldn’t change the criteria for what’s now being sent to the national lab in Winnipeg, which includes testing of international travellers and health care workers, or any suspicious transmission patterns.

She said in those cases results can still be obtained in about three days.