Coronavirus: Mass testing is the way to go – Segbefia

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Response Team on COVID-19 is calling for mass testing to help deal with the spread of the virus in the country.

Ghana has, so far, recorded 1,671 COVID-19 cases with 16 deaths and 188 recoveries.

According to the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, 1,461 of the positive cases are well or showing “no symptoms and responding to treatment”.

Reacting to the government’s response to the cases on the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Class91.3FM, Mr Alex Segbefia, who is a member of the Response Team said mass testing was the best option for the nation to know the nature of the virus.

The former Health Minister told host Benjamin Akakpo on Wednesday, 29 April 2020: “I think the major thing for us is to deal with the mass testing because when we do mass testing, we’ll have a very good idea of the nature of the virus and the spread.

“It is crucial, especially, if we intend to open our borders any time soon because, at the moment, one of the good things is that we are still isolated from the rest of the world in terms of foreign travel or people coming in, and, as a result of that, we are dealing with what is happening internally.

"By doing mass testing, we’ll have a good idea of what is happing…Let’s be clear there’s no cure and there’s no vaccine officially at the moment…”