Nine centres currently testing coronavirus cases in Ghana

Ghana currently has nine testing sites, which are helping speed up analysis of samples for COVID-19 cases, Dr Patrick Kuma-Abogye, Director General of Ghana Health Service said on Thursday.

The centres are; the Public Health and Reference Laboratory, the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine, the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, and the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) in Ho.

The rest, which are in the Greater Accra Region, are; the Crop Research Institute (CRI), the Noguchi Memorial Institute, the Veterinary Service Division in Accra, and the Public Health and Reference Laboratory at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.

Dr Kuma-Abogye was providing update on the COVID-19 pandemic at the Minister’s Press Briefing.

Dr Kuma-Abogye said the least number of samples each of the centres could test was 400, but added that Noguchi Memorial Institute had more than 2,000 capacity.

He said if a Centre wanted to do a 24-hour service or adopt a method that would allow for more testing depending on the need, the capacity would increase significantly.

Today’s briefing was on the topics; Update on case count and case management, dynamics of the virus in Ghana, confronting stigma, update on Coronavirus Alleviation Programme, and business support scheme.