BY: Lambert Atsivor | Voltaonlinegh.com |
It has emerged that, the Ho Municipal Assembly spend about GH¢1000 to transport suspected COVID-19 samples from the municipality to Accra for testing.
The amount covers expenditure on fuel and allowances to the driver and other officials who accompany the samples to the testing centre at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research in Accra.
Mr. Prosper Pi-Bansah, the Municipal Chief Executive who made the disclosure during an exclusive ExTV &Volta Online COVID-19 Series Facebook Live session hosted by Rustum Gameli Senorgbe on Monday, said the assembly has already spent on about four of such trips.
“Whenever we send one sample to Accra, we spend Gh¢1000. That is the assembly fuels the vehicle, pays the driver and team who go on the trip and we have sent samples to Accra about 3 or four times."
He has therefore welcomed the opening of a testing centre at the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) in Ho by government, describing it as a great relief.
So far, the Ho municipality has two of the 10 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Volta region, all of which are on isolation at the Regional Treatment Centre of the Ho Teaching Hospital.
Read Also: UHAS Begins COVID-19 Testing; Set to Test 60 Samples a Day
Background
The University of Health and Allied Sciences central laboratory at its main Sokode-Lokoe campus on Monday began the testing of suspected COVID-19 samples in the Volta and Oti region.
This follows weeks of preparation and training under the guidance of experts from the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research.
Dr. Senanu Kwesi Djokoto, Deputy Regional Director in-charge of Public Health in an earlier interview with Volta Online said move was a big boost for the management of COVID-19 cases in region as it would drastically reduce the waiting period for sample results and its associated anxieties.
Source: www.voltaonlinegh.com
