COVID-19: Noguchi clears backlog of samples

The Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, Ghana’s largest lab testing for coronavirus in the country has completed testing the backlog of about 18,000 samples, giving it room to now test and report on samples within 24 hours.

This is according to the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Patrick Kumah Aboagye.

Making a presentation at a Minister for Information press briefing on Tuesday, Dr. Kumah Aboagye said the last batch of the backlog was cleared over the weekend and the results are part of the new 550 cases confirmed in the last Ghana Health Service update.

“As at now, we have recorded 2,719 cases across the country. This covers all the cases that were diagnosed since the first case was diagnosed on the 12th of March. Since the last update, we’ve had an increase of about 550 cases and this has come out of the nearly 18,000 tests conducted in the last few days over the weekend, wiping out the entire backlog at Noguchi,” he said.

KCCR backlogs to be cleared by Thursday

Meanwhile, the Director of Virology at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, Prof. William Ampofo says the Kumasi Center for Collaborative Research has about 1,982 samples it is yet to test.

He, however, added that they are hopeful that all that backlog will be cleared by Thursday.

“I just crosschecked with Professor Richard Philip at KCCR and he has 1,982 samples awaiting testing, it was 3,500 yesterday [Monday] so they worked all night.  He expects that by Thursday, all backlogs will be done,” he said.

When the backlogs are cleared and more testing labs come onboard, Ghana is expected to be able to test and report on cases faster than is being currently done.

Ghana’s case count

Ghana’s case count as at 10 am on Tuesday, May 5, 2020, stood at 2,719 confirmed positive COVID-19 cases with 18 deaths and 294 recoveries.

Cases have been confirmed in 14 out of the country 16 regions with the Greater Accra region have over 80 percent of the national burden.

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