Coronavirus: MP proposes mass testing

Dr Mark Kurt Nawaane, Member of Parliament (MP) in the Upper East Region, has called on the government to carry out mass testing for COVID-19 in order to know the real state of the virus in the country.

According to him, the government had delayed in its approach to dealing with the issue, indicating that if the government had instituted stiff measures at the initial stage of the pandemic, Ghana would not have recorded any case of COVID-19.

He said for the government to know the real state of affairs as far as COVID-19 was concerned, there was the need for a scientific approach to deal with the pandemic.

Dr Nawaane made the call when he presented pieces of furniture, ‘Veronica Buckets,’ disinfectants, and Personnel Protective Equipment (PPE) to the Nabdam District Health Directorate to support the fight against the spread of the virus.

The MP, who is a member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health and Chief Executive Officer of Saint Mark Hospital at Dunkwa and Wassa Akropong, said: “The government should make all efforts to get more testing materials for mass testing.”

He suggested that an amount of GHC200,000,000.00 which was raised during the previous administration and transferred into the Contingency Fund, be used in the present difficult time to benefit the ordinary Ghanaian.

“Please let’s not give it to a certain class. That is not good. That money should be used to acquire more testing materials so that if I am not feeling well, am coughing too much and I want to test, I should have a place to test so that we can assess the real extent of the spread,” he said.



Dr Nawaane commended government for the initiative to absorb the cost of the water bill for the next three months, saying “that is good but we know that for most Ghanaians, the real problem is the electricity bills, we want people to stay at home, why don’t we make sure that the electricity bills are reduced so that people can work from home”.

He urged government to negotiate with telecommunications companies to ensure a reduction in the cost of internet data bundles so that people could work from home.

Mr James Tobiga Naabil, the Nabdam District Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), thanked the MP for the gesture and appealed to other stakeholders to join the fight against the virus in the District.