Coronavirus: 14 Lab Scientists Infected

Some 14 laboratory scientists across the country have tested positive to COVID-19 due to infections in the line of their duty.

The spokesperson for the Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists (GAMLS), Dennis Gyesi Adu who confirmed this said the association is deeply concerned about the development.

According to him, the worrying situation usually occurs when the professionals are adequately informed about samples they are to work on but only get to known much later that they are samples from suspected COVID-19 victims.

“We can count about 14 of our lab professionals across the country that are infected. This happens in the line of their duty because samples come into the laboratory routinely. We have had challenges with some of these things happening where samples will slip through before later they even realize that this was a COVID suspected patient,” he said.

There are increasing cases of COVID-19 infections among health workers of various categories.

These infections are contracted in the course of their work as front liners in the fight against the disease in Ghana.

As a measure to reduce the spread of COVID-19 among health workers, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Kuma-Aboagye has said that the Service has intensified training on infection prevention and control for all of its staff.

Dr. Kuma-Aboagye had much earlier disclosed that the Ghana Health Service has begun evaluating why a lot more health workers are testing positive for COVID-19 in the country.

Some have blamed the lack of personal protective equipment as reported in various health facilities for the seeming rise of COVID-19 cases among health professionals.