Parliament facilitated coronavirus testing for press corps – PPC Dean

Dean of the Parliamentary Press Corps, PPC, Simon Agianab, has confirmed that media persons covering the house were part of coronavirus testing recently carried out by the legislature.

According to him, the PPC were added to the support staff of parliament along with the police, fire service, and cleaners.

“We had our test last Friday (February 5) so the report came today,” he told GhanaWeb in an interview yesterday, February 8.

“Initially they did not involve us… but it came to the attention of the majority leader that the journalists were not part, they are there with us.

“I went to inquire how they were going to do it and they extended the time for us. We got all the parliamentary journalists and they run their tests on Friday,” Agianab, who is editor of the Accra Times added.

He further confirmed that only persons who had tested positive were contacted as had been done in the case of MPs.

Throughout last week, reports of MPs failing to test for coronavirus and others attending to the house whiles being positive dominated the news.

Speaker Alban Bagbin at a point threatened to expose the recalcitrant lawmakers. He later disclosed further that 15 MPs and 56 parliamentary staff had contracted the virus.