Samples collected for COVID-19 test in the Northern Region will no longer be transported to Kumasi or Accra for testing as the Tamale Public Health Reference Laboratory is set to commence testing of COVID-19 samples by Wednesday.
Officials say almost all the equipment necessary for testing are ready adding that the facility has the capacity to test over 200 samples a day.
Currently, the Northern and Upper Regions transport COVID-19 samples to the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research for testing.
The situation according to the Northern Regional Health Directorate puts a financial strain on the Directorate as it costs almost a GHS 1,000 transporting samples per trip.
The commencement of the tests, according to the Head of the Tamale Public Health and Reference Laboratory, Dr. Abass Abdul Karim will ease the burden on the Health Directorate as well as provide real-time results.
“This comes as very good news for us because since this thing started we have been sending samples to KCCR in Kumasi which comes with its own challenges in terms of the financial aspect and the efforts that we put in place. If we are actually going to start that burden when it comes to the financial aspect and the effort that we put in place will be reduced to the barest minimum.”
“When you look at the turn around time, you’ll realize that the turn around time is long so if we are able to start here I think it will bring the turn around time to the barest minimum. The machine potentially is able to run 96 samples. Sometimes when you send the samples because of the backlog, you realise the turn around time is long.”
Ghana is gradually expanding its capacity for testing for the COVID-19.
In a bid to fast-track testing of samples picked from persons suspected to be infected with COVID-19, the government activated additional testing centres.
At the initial stage of the COVID-19 outbreak in Ghana, the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research and the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR) were the main centres used for testing samples collected.
However additional testing centres including the National Reference Lab – Korle Bu, VSD (Accra, Kpong Tamale) and the Council For Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) were subsequently added.
The UHAS lab at the University of Health and Allied Sciences also began testing samples of persons suspected to have been exposed to COVID-19 on Monday, April 27, 2020.
Source:Fiilafmonline/CitiNews
