Christian Health Association offers Covid-19 testing in five regions

The Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG) on Tuesday launched a Covid-19 testing program in Accra to make polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing easily accessible at district and sub-district levels.

The testing program, intended to complement the government’s efforts to contain the coronavirus, will be implemented at six sites in five selected regions.

The sites are Bawku Presbyterian Hospital in the Haut-Est region, Wenchi Methodist Hospital and Holy Family Hospital in Berekum in the Bono region, and the SDA hospital in Kwadaso in the region of ‘Ashanti.

The others are Saint Francis Xavier Hospital in Assin Fosu in the central region and Saint Dominic Hospital, Akwatia, in the eastern region.

Mr. Kwaku Ageymang-Manu, Minister of Health, who launched the program, congratulated the Association for proposing an intervention to meet the growing demands for COVID-19 PCR testing beyond designated epicenters.

He said Ghana was ranked among the few countries to have responded to the pandemic rightly because of the solidarity and resilience of the health system to contain the virus, while providing essential and basic health care. To the population.

“As cases increased, testing and contact tracing was anchored at certain regional and district levels to ensure effective pandemic mitigation at all levels,” the health minister said.

The intervention is an upgrade to CHAG’s COVID-19 Response and Institutional Capacity Building (CRIB) project, created since the start of the pandemic, to support the national response to COVID-19 with funding from Foreign British Government Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

Dr Peter Yeboah, executive director of CHAG, said that despite efforts to curb the spread, the risk of increased viral transmission presented the need for more testing labs.

He said that for better control of the spread of Covid-19, the government must increase the capacity and scope of routine contact tracing, testing and surveillance.

“CHAG has observed that in some vulnerable generations and geographies, rapid and accurate COVID testing and scope can mean the difference between life and death,” he said.

Dr Patrick Kuma Aboagye, chief executive of the Ghana Health Service, said Ghana only had two laboratories to test for the virus in the early stages of the pandemic, but it was now expanded to 36 testing laboratories across the country. country.

He called on the public to observe the COVID-19 preventive protocol as the Easter celebration approaches.

“Let’s celebrate this Easter carefully, let’s all make efforts to avoid large family reunions as this is the only way to ensure that the cases do not happen again like during Christmas celebrations,” he said.

Mr. Philip Smith, Director of Development of FCDO, Ghana, said the current COVID-19 vaccines were not silver bullets, but important tools designed to reduce the severity of illness and death.

He encouraged Ghanaians to observe safety protocols as Easter approaches, including maintaining appropriate social distancing, wearing a face mask and frequent hand washing remained essential in the fight against the coronavirus. .

The Christian Health Association of Ghana is a network of 346 health facilities belonging to the Catholic Bishop Conference, the Christian Council of Ghana and the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council.

Currently, it is the second largest provider of health services, outside of government, contributing 20 percent of national outpatient attendance and 35 percent of inpatient care in the 16 regions.