GHS can’t say for sure Delta variant is not in the communities – Scientist

An immunologist at the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP), Dr. Yaw Bediako has warned that the Ghana Health Service(GHS) cannot say for sure that there is no delta variant in the communities.

According to him, the level of testing and our capacity is very low so the country needs to be careful in making absolute statements on the matter.

His comment follows an earlier release by the Ghana Health Service suggesting that the newly delta variant from India has not been detected in the communities yet. The GHS pointed out that the country has detected six cases at the point of entry but not in the communities.

Dr. Bediako who spoke on the Sunrise Morning Show on 3FM said “It is true that what has been communicated is accurate so far; the samples that have been collected are restricted to people who tested positive at the Airport. So far from the samples collected in the communities from April and May, we have not found the delta variant.

“However the reality is that we only sequence about 300 samples. Yes, it is accurate that so far we have not detected delta variant in our communities; it does not however mean that delta variant is not in our communities because we are not testing too much”.

“So we have to be careful in making absolute statements that we have not found it in the communities. We need to redouble our efforts and expand our sequencing.

The UK sequences over a thousand samples every week; Ghana has only done 700 samples in total so we have to be very careful. We can take heart that so far we have not found it in the communities but also not sequencing enough”.