Health Ministry directs Public labs not to charge Ghanaian residents for Covid-19 testing

The Health Ministry in a circular has directed all public health testing laboratories not to charge residents in Ghana for COVID-19 testing.

In a communiqué to all public health testing laboratories dated January 27, 2021, the ministry said it “has decided that public COVID-19 testing laboratories providing walk-in services can charge only charge travellers for testing”.

The ministry also said, “all other walk-in requests such as ill-health, contact tracing and exposure must be done free-of-charge using public health resources.”

The recent surge in infections has seen 616 new cases move Ghana up to 3,813 active cases from 1,330 cases on January 8.

The GHS has recorded 377 deaths from the virus out of 62,751 confirmed cases whilst 58,561 persons have recovered or have been discharged after infections.

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Currently, all 16 regions in the country have registered Coronavirus cases with the Greater Accra, Ashanti, Western, Eastern, and Central regions leading with the highest rate of infections.

Meanwhile, The Ghana Medical Association, GMA has called on government as a matter of urgency restrict social activities in the country.