Covid-19: 1,982 Backlog Samples Cleared, Ghana’s Infection Rate to be Determined Daily

The rate of infection of COVID-19 in Ghana will be determined within 24 hours, starting from Thursday, May 7, according to the Head of the Virology Department of the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) Professor William Ampofo.

Professor Ampofo made this assertion after a backlog of 1,982 samples were cleared at the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR), one of the testing centres in the country.

Already, the NMIMR has cleared all backlog of samples.

Prof. Ampofo said covid-19 testing had been expanded to include limited testing at the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS), Ho.

He added that, there was ongoing testing at the Public Health Laboratory at the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) and the Veterinary Services Directorate Laboratory at Pong-Tamale, both in the Northern Region.

“As I speak, we have a testing centre being established at the Veterinary Services Directorate in Takoradi in the Western Region, and this is being done in conjunction with the Public Health Laboratory of the Effia Nkwanta Hospital,” he said, and expressed the hope that by the close of day today (Wednesday), they would start testing COVID-19 in the Western Region.

In addition, he said, the NMIMR was also going to utilise the gene expert system which was prevalent in almost all health systems in various regions of the country.

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“There are specific expert centres that have the gene expert machine for tuberculosis (TB) that has been developed for COVID-19. We hope that by the end of next week there will be these cassettes that can also test for COVID-19. We hope to roll out testing in these facilities to complement the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) station that has been established,” Prof. Ampofo said.

He expressed the hope that by the end of May this year, virtually every region would be able to test for COVID-19, and that the GHS and the Ministry of Health (MoH) would determine the actual strategy to be used for testing at the sites in those beneficiary areas.