Macro Shipping Limited, an indigenous company in the Shipping and Freight industry, have honoured a call by the Takoradi Veterinary Service Department, to support them procure some logistics and resources to enhance testing of the novel coronavirus.
The Veterinary Service Department is the only testing center for COVID-19 in the Western Region. However due to the rising cases of infection in the region, the facility have been constrained in conducting their optimum testing on samples collected from the Regional Surveillance team.
General Manager for Macro Shipping Limited, Roland Azalimah indicated that, the company owes a responsibility to residents and the country, of supporting in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Its not a nine-day wonder. We hope that subsequently prepare ourselves… we will always want to support this facility till the pandemic is over,” he added.
The items donated included, 500 pieces of Eppendorf tubes,500 pieces of Cryovial tubes, 1,200 pieces of Pipette tip, and other PCR Equipment for testing. They also delivered some packets of protective gear and sanitary items
Head of the Takoradi Veterinary Service Department, Dr. Simon Gbene was very appreciative of the gesture. He disclosed that such items comes at a huge cost, and for which reason given the rising cases of infection, overwhelms government’s financial capacity.
“This donation has come at the right time …it will serve two purposes; to help us do our work and to send a signal to other companies that government alone cannot do it. We need to help. A cost of one sample testing is very exorbitant and so any time we have companies like Macro Shipping coming onto the table, we are always happy that people have come to the understanding that this fight is not one person fight.
He added that the risk of a viral spread is most profound in persons who are asymptomatic and with a high viral load. Dr. Gbene said the right approach to curtailing a spread of the virus is with an enhanced testing.
“if they help and we able to test more we will be breaking the chain, especially for the asymptomatic. And some of them because they are not showing any signs.. they are what we call super-spreaders because the viral load is so high in them. And once that happens it means transmission is high.”
The Veterinary Service Department have since May this year been testing samples of COVID-19 infected persons, contacts and suspected cases. It has a bio-safety level 3 and 2 laboratory to run on average 300 test a day but due to logistical constraints, the facility was virtually closed down some week ago. They reported of some shortage of reagents, and as such samples collected across the region had piled up at the Effia Nkwanta Reference Laboratory for storage, awaiting a resuscitation from government or private sector.