Lesotho now runs own COVID-19 tests

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Lesotho now runs own COVID-19 tests
Lesotho now runs own COVID-19 tests

Africa-Press – Lesotho. The Ministry of Health (MoH) health professionals led by Director General (DG) Dr. ‘Nyane Letsie on last week announced to the nation that the ministry through the National

Reference Laboratories (NRL) located at Lepereng Maseru, has started testing for coronavirus (Covid-19) locally. Addressing the media, Letsie said this is a milestone for the mountain kingdom adding that

the Ministry will now announce Covid-19 results on a regular basis. Director Laboratories Services Tsietso Motšoane said at the beginning of the pandemic,

Lesotho was part of the countries that took samples to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) in South Africa (SA) for testing. Motšoane said Lesotho started testing its own

Covid-19 samples earlier this month. She further noted that the first 100 samples they tested were sent to NICD for confirmation. “We had to take the samples to NICD to confirm if the results we

received corresponded with theirs and they did hence the World Health Organization (WHO) gave us the greenlight to conduct our own tests,” she said. Motšoane clarified that all Covid-19 samples are

tested for free. On the other issue of quarantine facilities, MoH Epidemiologist Dr. Tšepang Lekhela explained that people who have to go under quarantine process for 14 days are those

coming from affected countries into Lesotho and those who may have had physical contact with a person who tested positive for Covid-19. On the issue of one Covid-19 patient who was allegedly neglected by the Berea

Isolation facility thus went home using public transport, Dr. Mpho Shale who is in charge of Berea Hospital denied these allegations saying the hospital had

organized transport, only to find the patient was impatient thus decided to depart. However, she assured the nation that the patient’s health status as

according to WHO guidelines was not putting anybody at risk because even though she tested positive she has no Covid-19 symptoms and had completed her quarantine term.

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