COVID-19: WACCBIP Director commends gov’t for rigorous testing at airport

Director of the West African Center for Cell Biology and Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP), Professor Gordon Awandare, has said that government must be commended for its efforts in reducing COVID-19 cases through the testing at the airports.

READ MORE: We don’t need to close schools over Delta variant – Prof Awandare

According to him, the government has done its best to reduce the importation of the virus into the country.

In an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show, he expressed: “Testing the people on arrival was good and now we see a lot of people carrying these new variants being stopped and quarantined. If that is being done efficiently then we are stopping a lot of people from bringing different variants into the country. Let’s give credit to the government for doing this. It has prevented the importation of the virus in here.”

Speaking on the private company tasked to carry out the testing at the airport, the professor was of the view that local institutions could have been empowered to carry out the testing. According to him, such an initiative could have saved the country a lot of money.

Meanwhile, he states that it is understandable that the government will outsource an organization to carry out the testing during the emergency period when the country was under “pressure”.

READ MORE: A/R Minister trying to render Ejura Committee irrelevant – Security Expert

READ MORE: I’ll pursue professional development for Journalists – Gayheart

Earlier this week, Professor Gordon Awandare charged government to procure more antigen test kits and promote voluntary testing. “So when you go for an event or meeting, you can be tested and those who test positive will be denied entry to prevent transmission. It can also help us quickly identify people with the virus in our hospital setting for immediate isolation.”