Unqualified people collecting COVID-19 samples for Noguchi, others

A former Chief Executive Officer of the Ridge Hospital in Accra, is claiming that 60% of samples taken from suspected Coronavirus cases for test at Noguchi and other research centres across the country were pure saliva, whose results are not mostly accurate.

This, Dr. Thomas Anaba, explained was because the people who were recruited to take the COVID-19 samples are not competent enough to undertake such complex exercise suggesting that the magnitude of the pandemic in Ghana, is not truly known by the authorities.

From his expert knowledge, the special advisor to the President Nana Akufo-Addo on Health, Dr. Anthony Nsiah Asare, was right with his earlier position that some 3 million people in Ghana, will end up catching the deadly virus.

Speaking on Accra-based Kasapa FM on Wednesday, Dr. Anaba challenged the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service to put out the names of the persons who are taking the samples.

“I want the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service to give us the list of people who went down to take the samples. Let’s juxtapose their names by their qualification and experience in taking samples and you’ll see the secret under the deceitful sample taking that Ghana Health Service did.”

He added: “Talking about the laboratory, we are told that they’ve tested some sixty-something thousand, we are disputing that as scientists simply because we know the capacity of Noguchi and KCCR. Even if you double it they’ll give you 50,000 it can reach more than 60,000, plus the bad samples that were taken so in a nutshell if we get data that is accurate you’ll analyze it wrongly and your conclusion will be wrong and your decisions you take as recommendations will be wrong.

“Dr. Nsiah Asare knows that this is not correct information so therefore we’ll really hit 3 million people in Ghana getting the virus. You could see him on TV messing up himself in definitions. He himself didn’t know that there were double and triple samples they were referring to as individuals until the interviewer pushed him. His definition of science is pathetic and I ask myself is this our Advisor to the President on Health who says I won’t give you figures because I don’t want to make a mistake.”

The special advisor to the President on Health, has meanwhile denied saying three million Ghanaians will contract the deadly Coronavirus pandemic.

Dr. Nsiah Asare, former Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, has been quoted as saying a model generated for coronavirus infections in Ghana projects that 10% of the population is likely to test positive.

Speaking to Accra-based Joy News TV, ex-Chief Executive Officer of Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, saying out of the 10% projected infections, the majority of the cases are likely to be asymptomatic.

“We expect that about 10% of the population may be infected and out of the 10% of the population 80% may not show signs or symptoms at all and 5% of them will be very ill, that is the projection,” he said.

Speaking at the Special COVID-19 press briefing in Accra on Wednesday, April 22, Dr. Asare said his assertion was taken out of context, adding he has been misreported.

“It’s not true that Ghana will have three million people infected before we’ll reach the peak. It’s not true. We’ll never see that. Because as we speak now, the number of deaths in the country is nine. If you calculate it according to the percentage of the number of people who are infected, it’s 0.7%. So it’s nowhere near 5%,” the former Director-General of the Ghana Health Service explained.

He further clarified: “If you look at the number of tests we have done so far, we have 1,154 positives which is about 1.5% positivity of people that have been tested. And even if you look at the negative range, it’s about 98.5%. So we will never get near the WHO hypothesis.”

Dr. Asare is reported to have said that 10% of the population of Ghana is likely to test positive. According to reports attributed to him, he said out of the 10% projected infections, the majority of the cases are likely to be asymptomatic.

“We expect that about 10% of the population may be infected and out of the 10% of the population 80% may not show signs or symptoms at all and 5% of them will be very ill, that is the projection,” he said.

“I gave a hypothesis that WHO put out which is based on the population of the country. And I said that if Ghana stays without doing anything at all, that is what will happen to us as a country; 10% of the population being infected and 20% getting sick and about 5% getting very seriously ill. But I said that that is not the case in Africa. Based on the facts and data that we have, we have realized that our actual figures are far below what WHO has quoted. And it’s because we’ve put a lot of things in place to prevent the spread,” he noted.

Ghana has so far recorded 1,154 COVID-19 cases with nine deaths and 120 recoveries, according to the Ghana Health Service at the press briefing. The development means that 112 new cases have been confirmed with 21 more people recovering since Sunday, April 19 when President Nana Akufo-Addo addressed the country.

The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Patrick Aboagye at the press conference indicated that except for the 115 travellers who tested positive on mandatory quarantine, new cases were recorded in the category of enhanced contact tracing and the general surveillance. Read Full Story