Coronavirus: WACCBIP urges government to conduct random testing in schools

The West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) has asked the government to conduct random COVID-19 testing in schools.

The Centre believes that it will help in the early detection of the virus and subsequently reduce the spread of the virus amongst students.

WACCBIP Director, Prof. Gordon Awandare, in an interview with UniversNews, explained that the random test will help the government monitor the Covid-19 situation among students.

“I think what we need to do is to monitor. I have personally advocated for random testing in the schools. Once you have reopened the schools and the protocols are emplaced, the only way you can monitor to know whether the protocols are effective is to do random testing of the children. So every week, you select children randomly and you have them tested so that if there is an outbreak we can detect it very early,” he said.

While commending the government for reopening schools after a long period of time, Prof. Gordon Awandare, however, expressed worry over the recent surge in COVID cases in Ghana.

He entreated school administrations to effectively manage the health crisis by enforcing strict adherence to preventive protocols.

Meanwhile, Prof. Awandare says that WACCBIP is taking steps to conduct a study on the prevalence of the novel Coronavirus among students across all educational institutions.

Ghana’s Covid situation

Schools across the country have reopened despite a surge in Covid cases.

President Akufo-Addo, in his 22nd COVID-19 address, said all senior high schools have been mapped with health facilities for eventualities.

He asked pupils and students to put their “frustrations” behind and be self-disciplined with strict adherence to the safety protocols.

As of 16th January 2021, Ghana had registered 58,431 cases of the virus with 55,899 recoveries, and 358 deaths.

The active cases stand at 2,174.

According to officials, the country is recording an average of 200 infections daily.