A Research fellow at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) has revealed the seven centres that were set up to assist the Institute in speeding up Covid-19 testing in the country have ceased operating.

Dr Kofi Bonney said the shutdown was necessary because the centres have run out of essentials needed to undertake testing.

This, according to him has mounted undue pressure on NMIMR and the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR), the two major testing centres in the country.

“These testing centres have run out of consumables needed for the processing of Covid-19 samples and are yet to be restocked by the Ghana Health Service (GHS),” he disclosed in an interview on Happy FM.

he added that, the machinery of the centres are in good shape but the logistics are what needs in order for testing to resume.

He then admitted that, the current situation is the reason for the enormous backlog of Covid-19 samples.

But, the researcher said Noguchi will begin to use some of the reagents it had stocked earlier to serve as back up in case they not receive any from GHS.

“We will transport some of the samples to the other testing centres and use their machines for the testing. This is a strategy to help us reduce our backlog,” he stated.