The Ambassador of the Netherlands praised the management of Covid-19 in Ghana; promises the continued support of his government

The Dutch government has praised the government of Ghana for its frankness in dealing with the pandemic since its onset in the country.

Ambassador Ron Strikker commended Ghana for showing strong political will and making very timely decisions in the interest of the security and well-being of its citizens.

He said that beyond the many health interventions, the Dutch government noted with great admiration the large-scale socio-economic interventions introduced by Ghana to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 restrictions on Ghanaians, by especially the poor.

Establishment of a national quality assurance program for Covid-19 testing laboratories.

Ambassador Ron Striker is confident that the strong partnership between Ghanaian health authorities and the Dutch government has helped improve the quality of Covid-19 test results in Ghana.

He said the partnership with the Ghanaian government is part of efforts to support the country’s 23 Covid-19 testing labs to enable them to deliver results that meet global standards, regardless of their location in the country.

Since Ghana recorded its first two cases of coronavirus in March 2020, there have been

several efforts to expand the country’s testing capacity in order to provide timely and accurate data on the extent of the virus’s spread among the population.

These efforts, while very useful, have at times been hampered by limitations in compliance with standardized operational testing protocols and effective systems for processing and reporting data for Covid-19 test results.

“I am personally proud of the work done by the Department of Health, the GHS National Laboratory Network for Covid-19 testing, the FDA, HeFRA and the PharmAccess Foundation.

COVID-19 lab test proficiency measurement and results

According to Ron Strikker, the National Quality Assurance Program (NQAP) for Covid-19 testing laboratories is designed to strengthen and maintain the capacity of Ghanaian laboratories in the area of ​​the accuracy of test results in all Covid-19 test laboratories as well as for efficient data management of test results.

He said, “You have to have quality standards to come up with test results. Because you may have taken the Covid-19 tests, but how do you know if they are correct? ”

He said that through our work with partners such as the Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service, National Laboratory Network for Covid-19 testing, Food & Drugs Authority, Health Facilities Regulatory Agency and PharmAccess Foundation, we have been able to make sure there are protocols. uniformity

and standards in all laboratories performing Covid-19 testing in Ghana.

He explained, “There have been a lot of blind tests done to make sure that if you present a variety of test results … say 10, to a lab, you will get the same results as when you present them to a lab. another lab, most of the labs have been very proficient in this area, I think that’s a fantastic achievement. Ron Strikker said.

Two agencies; The Healthcare Facilities Regulatory Authority (HeFRA) and Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) have the capacity to enforce the maintenance of these NQAP standards to ensure consistency of Covid-19 test results in Ghana today. hui and in the years to come. It is important.’ Ron Strikker noted.

Dutch government supports vaccination campaign with Covax vaccines

As a member of the European Union which is the largest donor to the COVAX facility, the Dutch government is committed to contributing to the program to make Covid-19 vaccines available to all countries of the world, regardless of or their economic status.

Having contributed to COVAX, the platform that plans to provide free vaccines to around twenty percent of Ghana’s population, Ron Strikker said the Dutch government was impressed with the efforts of the government of Ghana.

He added: “I am delighted with the delivery of some 600,000 doses of Indian-made AstraZeneca vaccine to the country on February 24, 2021.”

“I think Ghana was the very first country in the world to receive the vaccines as part of the COVAX facility.”

Ron Strikker pointed out that just because people in the Netherlands and other parts of Europe may have more money in their country than Ghana and other countries on the African continent does not mean that they should have access to vaccines before anyone else in Africa.

Ron Strikker emphasized: “We are not safe until everyone is safe.”