The Ghana Health Service (GHS), in collaboration with the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), would look into the efficacy of the Madagascar Coronavirus (COVID-19) drug, the Director of Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Patrick Aboagye-Kuma, has disclosed.
According to him, Madagascar has made an offer to Ghana to try its drug on COVID-19 patients, but some tests need to be conducted to ascertain the potential of the drug, which is said to have cured patients in that country.
Dr Patrick Kuma Aboagye was speaking yesterday at a press briefing on Ghana’s measures in the fight against the plague.
Dr Aboagye, who disclosed that Madagascar had made an offer to Ghana, could not confirm if the tonic would be allowed to be used in Ghana.
He said: “I believe that a quantity might be made available to the country, and we will ensure collaboration with FDA. They have to do some assessment, and then we take it from there.
“So, I will not be able to say whether it will be used or not. But I think they have made an offer, and we can take a look at it.”
South Africa has begun examining the drug for possible use, and other African countries such as Tanzania and Guinea-Bissau have made plans to import the tonic, which contains the artemisinin plant, normally used to treat malaria.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has dismissed the Madagascar President’s claims that the herbal tonic produced in the country can cure patients of COVID-19.
Ostensibly, about 200,000 small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) are anticipated to benefit from loans from the GH¢600 million government stimulus package.
The amount is part of the government’s stimulus package put together to mitigate the economic storm the Coronavirus has brought on SMEs.
Out of the number, micro-businesses, which make up 80 percent, will take a chunk of the monies to be disbursed.
The Executive Director of the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), Ms Kosi Antwiwaa Yankey, disclosed this while updating the media on work done so far in Accra.
Ms Yankey indicated that a criterion had also been outlined to allow people to apply for the loans.
To ensure transparency, she said an online portal will be created for the application. This, according to the Executive Director, would be launched soon.
She said: “Also, looking at the statistics of the micro small and medium enterprises in this country, there are three categories we are looking at. The micro makes up 80% of the population in terms of the sector. For the small, we have about 15%, and then the medium enterprises are about 1% of the sector.
“In view of that, we’ve looked at and analysed that about 200,000 businesses will benefit, considering that the micro businesses make up a huge chunk of the population,” she said, adding that they had been categorised to ensure that it is a representation of the entire sector.
Meanwhile, the number of cases in Ghana had increased to 3,091, after 372 more cases were announced on Thursday.
Ghana has also recorded nine more recoveries, taking its total number of recovered cases to 303, while the death toll remains at 18.
The post Cure for COVID-19: Ghana likely to fall on Madagascar; FDA to test efficacy appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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