The accuracy of testing for the deadly COVID-19 virus by officials in Sierra Leone, has been in the spotlight since confirmation of the first group of cases two months ago.
Spokesperson for the National Covid-19 Emergency Response Center (NACOVERC) – Mr Solomon Jamiru gave this statement in defence of the government’s testing protocol:
“From 284 samples obtained, and 270 analysed, we announced 86 positive cases at our 11am press update today.
But as the debate continues about the effectiveness of the testing done by officials in Sierra Leone, the head of the National Response Centre – Brigadier Kallie Conteh in response to calls for some cases to be retested, said: “Firstly, Sierra Leone uses only the WHO approved PCR test kits, unlike others who choose to use the rapid test kit which, by the way is not an approved test kit by WHO.
“Given BBC Umaru Fofana’s report, the only thing that will explain the discrepancy between the COVID-19 testing results of the returnees from Kuwait is either someone (i.e. in Kuwait or Sierra Leone) deliberately or in error concluded false positives or faulty testing kits.
I am calling on government, the Ministry of Health, EOC and other relevant authorities to do proper testing of the different test kits available in our country to ascertain whether someone is positive or negative of Covid-19.
