The Head of the Virology at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, Prof. William Ampofo says government has distributed close to 50,000 PCR testing kits as well as other essential kits to COVID-19 testing facilities across the country.
Testing for COVID-19 was impeded following the shortage of testing kits.
But addressing the media on Sunday, July 19, 2020, Prof. Ampofo said government has come up with a plan to sustain testing across the country.
“We have 10 existing sites and so we set out to procure logistics for about ten to three hundred thousand tests that will take us through the projected three month period as estimated when we came up with this plan some weeks back. So the 10 existing test sites have received enough supplies to enhance testing at these sites. Distribution was done last week. Among the things we bought are gloves, nucleic acid and the PCR disinfection kits. These are very important supplies, especially for Noguchi and KCCR because they will help us to clear the backlog of samples.”
Prof. Ampofo further mentioned that the government has plans to ensure that PCR tests for the pandemic continue.
“On the distribution that we did last week to all the testing sites, we have distributed close to 50,000 PCR kits and close to 30,000 nucleic acid extraction kits which forms the basis for the PCR testing and we are in the position to continuously replenish these supplies and to sustain PCR testing in Ghana.”
He also expressed gratitude to the security services for their swift reaction to the nationwide distribution of the supplies.
“We also want to thank the Ghana Armed Forces, the Ghana Police Service and the National Logistics committee for COVID because as soon as the items arrived, they were able to take delivery of them on the tarmac and move them into appropriate storage so that we could begin onward distribution. And we are very grateful because this is an important feature of we being able to work quickly during this emergency.”
Meanwhile, a total of 607 new cases of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have been recorded in Ghana bringing the total count as of July 19, 2020, to 27,667.
Three more deaths have also been recorded, raising the death toll to 148.
Active cases currently stand at 4,270.