Western Region to receive two COVID-19 testing machines soon – Health Director

The Western regional director of health, Jacob Mahama, says the region is likely to take delivery of two more COVID-19 testing machines in the next two weeks to help test any likely increase in COVID-19 cases which might arise.

Dr Mahama, speaking to Citi News’s Akwasi Agyei Annim in Sekondi about the region’s capacity to test more after the partial removal of restrictions on social gatherings, said the region has a backlog of roughly 4,000 samples. It hopes, however, to ramp up testing when the new testing machines arrive.

“We had a backlog of around 2,000 but now it’s shot up due to the increase in the number of cases. We had to go for the contact tracing, so they’re around 4,000 now,” Dr Mahama said. “We have all of them now in isolation centres that the companies have provided.

“They are very comfortable. We have our nurses there, making sure that they don’t lack anything. We’ve also gotten about 72 of those who tested negative here, and we are waiting for second testing to know they are negative so they can go about their own business.”

He continued, “Now we have one machine that has a capacity of 300 samples per day. We have one that is on its way from Canada. One, too, has been promised us by a philanthropist. In all, we’ll have three machines, which will be enough for our backlog and any other surge in cases. Within two weeks, I’m sure we should get it.”

Responding to the president’s pronouncement that a new hospital will be built for the region, Dr Mahama said there is a site for that at Agona-Nkwanta.

He was, however, unable to speak to funding sources and timelines.

Situation in the Western Region

Ghana’s COVID-19 case count has risen to 8,070 as of Monday 1 June.

The number of recoveries has also increased to 2,947, with the death count standing at 36.

Out of the total 8,070 cases, 421 are from the Western Region.

It was earlier reported that 43 health workers in the region had tested positive for COVID-19.

Twenty of the cases are from the Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital in Sekondi-Takoradi while 23 others are from Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality.

Sources said that the confirmed cases at the Effia-Nkwanta Hospital were contacts traced from a staffer at the hospital who had earlier tested positive for COVID-19.

Three units of the Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital had already been closed down after a staff member tested positive for the disease on 15 May 2020.

Testing centre

The Western Regional Veterinary Laboratory in Takoradi is one of the country’s new testing centres to help Ghana increase its capacity for testing for real-time positive results.

Aside from testing samples locally, samples from nearby locations are sent there.

The laboratory took delivery of its first batch of COVID-19 samples for testing on 4 May.

The 80 samples, which came from the Sekondi-Takoradi Metro, Effia-Kwesimintsim and the Elllembelle District, were expected to go through sorting, extraction and master mixing for final results on Tuesday 5 May.