Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has congratulated the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and Incas Diagnostics for their breakthrough in developing a Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) for COVID-19.
“Uniquely, this KNUST RDT is able to detect asymptomatic cases and takes up to 15-20 minutes to produce results.
“I’m proud of our Ghanaian students for this breakthrough”, Vice President Bawumia stated in a tweet.
It is expected that the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) would critically examine the medical device and approve it for mass testing for COVID-19 soon.
This is to enhance surveillance testing for COVID-19 towards ending the respiratory disease in the country.
The innovation comes when the same institution recently announced that it has produced a ventilator.
The College of Engineering of KNUST also held a demonstration exercise to explain the working operation of the home-made prototype ventilator.
The medical equipment, which is in the advanced stages of development, is a collaborative work between the College’s Computer Engineering Department and Michigan Technological University.
Ghana’s confirmed cases for COVID-19 is 1,550 as of Sunday, April 25, with 155 recoveries and 11 deaths, after receipt of 100,622 sample test results from the COVID-19 testing laboratories.
