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The Ghana Health Service (GHS) said that the Covid-19 testing facility at Kotoka International Airport (KIA) is able to detect the new strain of Covid-19 spreading from Europe.
This has also been confirmed by the Foods and Drugs Authority (FDA).
The service, however, insisted that to be safer, the country should do everything possible to ensure that the new variant does not get imported into the country.
“We know there is a new strain that studies show is a little more effective in terms of person-to-person transmission. What has not been proven so far is whether it causes more serious illness than the previous one, ”said the director general of the service, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye.
This comment comes after news of the detection of other variants of the new coronavirus in parts of Europe, Japan and South Africa.
Scientists say the new strain contains dozens of mutations, including genetic changes in the spike protein that the coronavirus uses to infect human cells. It is also said to be up to 70% more contagious.
Shedding more light on the matter, Dr Kuma Aboagye said the new strain has yet to be identified in Ghana.
However, it is optimistic that with the measures in place at the country’s international air border, the risk of the new variant being imported into the country is very low.
“We in Ghana haven’t identified him here. But because of our two-tiered testing system at the airport, we believe that if these people returning home in isolation adhere to the protocols, we should be protected against the introduction of this strain into the country, ”a- he declared.
Despite this, he assured that if the new strain was identified in the country, the health service would do everything in its power to contain it.
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