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The Navrongo Health Research Centre (NHRC) in the Kassena-Nankana Municipality of the Upper East will soon commence COVID-19 laboratory investigations for rapid release of test results for the Region.

Dr Winfred Ofosu, the Upper East Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) said this at a press briefing in Bolgatanga following the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the Region.

He said the Centre had all the relevant equipment to test for the virus.

He said the Presidential Committee on COVID-19 had asked Engineers from the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR) to set up a testing unit at the NHRC, “So if that is done, I believe in the next two weeks, we will have a testing site in Navrongo.”

He said if the site was set up, it would save the Health Services the stress of transporting samples for investigations at the KCCR for COVID-19 which often took about three days for the results to be released.

Dr Ofosu indicated that part of the issues rounding the confirmed case of the virus in the Region was “because of the delay in getting the results, it took almost a week after taking the specimen to get the results, if we had gotten the results within 24 hours, some of these slips would not have happened.”

The Director said about 25 percent of people infected with COVID-19 virus were usually asymptomatic but had the virus that could be transmitted, saying “these are the people at our workplaces, we meet them in the market, at shops and other places.”

Touching on the issues of the confirmed case of the 33-year-old pregnant woman in the Region, Dr Ofosu said: “In fact this lady I am sure if she were not pregnant she may not have come to the hospital because most times the symptoms subside after two or three days, and she would have been walking about with us.”

He said even though investigations were not conclusive, preliminary investigation showed that “Some of the symptoms started manifesting here before she travelled, which means that she probably got the infection here in Bolga. If that is the case, it means that the virus is in circulation.”

Dr Ofosu said the woman who was diagnosed would not necessarily be the one to spread the disease in the Region, “From the evidence we are gathering, it is likely that the virus was already circulating here before this case popped up.”

He said contact tracing had begun and stressed the need for the media to intensify education on the GHS protocols such as keeping social distance of about two metres, frequent handwashing with soap under running water among others, adding that “stay home if you have no urgent business in town.”