I’m not against mass coronavirus testing – Ghana’s Ambassador to China clarifies

Ghana’s Ambassador to China, Edward Boateng has clarified that he has never been against the notion of mass testing as earlier reported.

He said his comments about testing every Ghanaian for fears of a possible spread amongst the populace was misconstrued.

According to him, he was only attempting to assess the viability of the option of

Read full articlemass testing as against the global scarcity of PPEs and testing kits amongst others, when he said mass testing across Ghana may not be a good option.

In trying to provide a succinct explanation to his stance, he insisted that the idea of embarking on a mass coronavirus testing across the country would rather put pressure on the very limited resources and PPEs available while increasing the simmering panic amongst Ghanaians.

The ambassador, while speaking in an interview with eTV Ghana on the issues about Chinese relations with Ghana in the midst of the coronavirus and other related issues said per his experience in China, “the Chinese government did not embark on mass testing for all the about 1.4billion Chinese population. What they did, however, was that they identified hotspot areas and did testing in such areas. That was what I was saying. I have never been against mass testing. We can’t identify cases in East Legon and start mass testing around Dansoman.”

Ambassador Boateng called for calm amongst Ghanaian and asked for concerted support behind President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo because he believed government was on the same trajectory that China used to recover from the scourge of the coronavirus.

“President Akufo-Addo is on the same trajectory that saved China. He has been firm and clear with his communication, and if we as Ghanaians keep listening to the directives of the President, we will conquer the pandemic quickly,” he said.