A leading virologist at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, Dr. William Ampofo, has claimed that up to 100,000 tests for coronavirus will be achieved in just a matter of weeks.
given the figures as a way of weighing in on public disbelief of President Akufo-Addo’s claim that the country had sampled and up to 16,000 people for coronavirus, which was quickly padded up to 68,591 by the Government.
“With our partners, we have the latest kind of equipment to run viral detection. When we started, we realized that as the numbers grew, we were actually pooling 5 samples and then we changed to the pooling of 10 samples. So you can understand that it is not impossible to have tested 16,000 samples as His Excellency the President reported when he addressed all of us.
“Actually, since he addressed us we have actually tested close to 30,000 samples using the same method, because each time we do 10,000 samples, we actually, you know, the multiplication of a simple initial number. So please do not be surprised if in the next couple of days you hear that we have tested 100,000 samples in Ghana. its just a matter of multiplication and addition,” he said.
Controversy had broken over the Government’s claim of a ramping up in testing with many taking Akufo-Addo Government’s report that in just 21 days 68,591 people had been tested with a pinch of salt.
The huge test number that the Government had given failed to stand up to scrutiny when Citi FM’s Bernard Avle hosted Deputy Health Minister, Dr. Oko Boye and put the figures to strict proof.
Under peppering questions from Bernard Avle and Dr. Agyeman Badu Akosah, Dr. Oko Boye eventually crumbled, admitting that the figures which President Akufo-Addo used as the basis to lift the partial lockdown had been heavily padded.
As shocked viewers would get to know, the Government has been counting tests which prove infected persons positive, separate from tests that are conducted for the same individuals after they have been treated and tested negative, separately, so that for one individual, two tests that are conducted on him or her are listed as tests for two different people.
President Akufo-Addo had apparently, therefore, been lying when he claimed on Sunday that up to 68,591 tests had been conducted in the country over th three weeks of the lockdown.
The revelation has since shaken many with the World Health Organization expected to take note that Ghana’s data on testing is not reliable.
But as Dr. Ampofo claims, the President’s figures were factual and the reason the testing numbers have increased is because the testing facilities have received ultra-modern equipment.
These modern equipment, he said can pool and multiply tests and thus shooting up the number of testing within a short time. Yesterday, for instance, he said, Noguchi had processed 76,921 samples out of which the results of 70,921 have been made available.
He also said the Kumasi Center for Collaborative Research as of yesterday had processed 25,219 samples; 15,380 of which have been released.