Available data does not support second wave claims – Senior Research Fellow

Senior Research Fellow at the Virology Laboratory of the West African Institute for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP), Peter Kojo Quashie, has said that Ghana can determine if it is in its second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic only if it does extensive testing on citizens.

This comes after the Ghana Health Service warned of the likelihood of a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana.

According to him, the current figures of active cases are premised on travellers coming in and out of the country as well as people who are showing symptoms of the disease.

Peter advised that to determine whether Ghana is in its second wave, community testing must be conducted.

He told Samuel Eshun on e.TV Ghana’s ‘Fact Sheet’ show, “Second wave is not applicable to Ghana. To be able to measure a wave, we have to do mass testing. We are still within our first wave. It could be a proxy for a second wave.

Community testing is the only way that we can tell if we are in a second wave. The testings are done for those entering the country or leaving the country. It is not to say that the information on the likelihood of the second wave is not useful”

Stressing on the importance of mass testing, the Senior Research Fellow exemplified that his organization conducted an antibody test in only the Greater Accra and Kasoa areas only to discover that about twenty per cent of the population was exposed to the pandemic even though a greater number of them did not show any symptoms of the COVID-19 pandemic.