Testing of COVID-19 samples from Tamale begins today

The Public Health Reference Laboratory in Tamale will from today (Wednesday, April 29) begin the testing of COVID-19 samples collected from the northern part of the country to ensure quick turnaround time for results.

The Laboratory's equipment is capable of running a total of 288 COVID-19 tests in a day.

Dr Abass Abdul Karim, Head of Public Health Reference Laboratory in Tamale, who announced this in Tamale on Tuesday, said the facility's readiness to begin testing COVID-19 samples would reduce workload on the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR) as well as save costs.

Since the recording of the first two positive cases of COVID-19 in the country on March 12, the suspected cases samples collected from the northern part of the country were sent to the KCCR in Kumasi for testing, a situation, which increased the workload on the facility (KCCR) leading to delayed release of test results.

The Ghana Health Service and for that matter the government also incurred huge costs transporting the COVID-19 samples from the northern part of the country to the KCCR for testing.

Dr Abdul Karim described the readiness of the Public Health Reference Laboratory in Tamale to begin testing of COVID-19 samples collected from the northern part of the country as "A giant step in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic".