{"id":2703,"date":"2021-08-28T09:09:40","date_gmt":"2021-08-28T09:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests"},"modified":"2021-08-28T09:09:40","modified_gmt":"2021-08-28T09:09:40","slug":"lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests","title":{"rendered":"Lesotho to step up Covid-19 tests"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a> &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\">Lesotho<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>LESOTHO can now test 2 000 people for Covid-19 per day, thanks to a new testing station that was launched by Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro on Tuesday.<br \/>\nSpeaking at the launch, Dr Majoro said testing has to be enhanced so that the exact numbers of people infected by Covid-19 can be known so that they are isolated and treated.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Majoro said the government will establish three shifts to work and operate the machines.<br \/>\n\u201cWe want people who will also take care while doing their job,\u201d he said.<br \/>\nHe said there was already a massive backlog of unfinished Covid-19 tests.<br \/>\nThe Prime Minister said the previous technology used for testing was slow and inefficient.<\/p>\n<p>He said a few weeks ago they received cartridges that they were using, \u201cbut now that we have a new sustainable technology we will not be depending on the cartridges anymore\u201d.<br \/>\nDr Majoro launched the Covid-19 testing station four months after the Matekane Group of Companies (MGC) and Let\u0161eng Diamonds donated the equipment.<\/p>\n<p>The MGC donated the testing machine worth M30 million in early March while Let\u0161eng Diamonds provided the four-roomed modular structure to the National Reference Laboratories (NRL) for Covid-19 testing in mid-April.<br \/>\nThe Let\u0161eng donation was worth M400 000.<\/p>\n<p>The structure is situated at the National Laboratory in Bot\u0161abelo in Maseru.<br \/>\nDr Majoro said the MGC boss Sam Matekane \u201cis a hero in the country by always supporting the country in crisis\u201d.<br \/>\nDr Majoro said Lesotho does not have a lot of money and its health facilities are lagging behind.<br \/>\n\u201cThere are not enough health facilities and even health professionals to take care of many people who will be in need of attention when sick,\u201d Dr Majoro said.<\/p>\n<p>He said the government wants to make sure that it minimises the infections.<br \/>\n\u201cWe should know how many people get infected so that we do contact tracing,\u201d he said.<br \/>\nMeanwhile, the National Covid-19 Secretariat (Nacosec) Secretary, Doctor Catherine Lephoto, said her team has been working all weekend to install the new PCR machine that the MGC donated.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Lephoto said the team is now doing the verification of the machines and the plan was that by tomorrow the three testing machines will be up and running.<br \/>\nShe said they plan to issue 1 800 reports every day.<br \/>\nShe said from the minute a swab lands in the lab they can provide results within 24 hours.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is what my office is trying to accomplish,\u201d Dr Lephoto said.<br \/>\n\u201cThere are not enough workers at the Covid-19 testing labs,\u201d she said.<br \/>\nShe said they will have to recruit the necessary workforce to operate 24 hours.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy next week we are expecting to reach high numbers of tests,\u201d she said.<br \/>\nShe said they also want to have a fixed time to release results everyday even though their systems are not ready for that now.LESOTHO can now test 2 000 people for Covid-19 per day, thanks to a new testing station that was launched by Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro on Tuesday.<br \/>\nSpeaking at the launch, Dr Majoro said testing has to be enhanced so that the exact numbers of people infected by Covid-19 can be known so that they are isolated and treated.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Majoro said the government will establish three shifts to work and operate the machines.<br \/>\n\u201cWe want people who will also take care while doing their job,\u201d he said.<br \/>\nHe said there was already a massive backlog of unfinished Covid-19 tests.<br \/>\nThe Prime Minister said the previous technology used for testing was slow and inefficient.<\/p>\n<p>He said a few weeks ago they received cartridges that they were using, \u201cbut now that we have a new sustainable technology we will not be depending on the cartridges anymore\u201d.<br \/>\nDr Majoro launched the Covid-19 testing station four months after the Matekane Group of Companies (MGC) and Let\u0161eng Diamonds donated the equipment.<\/p>\n<p>The MGC donated the testing machine worth M30 million in early March while Let\u0161eng Diamonds provided the four-roomed modular structure to the National Reference Laboratories (NRL) for Covid-19 testing in mid-April.<br \/>\nThe Let\u0161eng donation was worth M400 000.<\/p>\n<p>The structure is situated at the National Laboratory in Bot\u0161abelo in Maseru.<br \/>\nDr Majoro said the MGC boss Sam Matekane \u201cis a hero in the country by always supporting the country in crisis\u201d.<br \/>\nDr Majoro said Lesotho does not have a lot of money and its health facilities are lagging behind.<br \/>\n\u201cThere are not enough health facilities and even health professionals to take care of many people who will be in need of attention when sick,\u201d Dr Majoro said.<\/p>\n<p>He said the government wants to make sure that it minimises the infections.<br \/>\n\u201cWe should know how many people get infected so that we do contact tracing,\u201d he said.<br \/>\nMeanwhile, the National Covid-19 Secretariat (Nacosec) Secretary, Doctor Catherine Lephoto, said her team has been working all weekend to install the new PCR machine that the MGC donated.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Lephoto said the team is now doing the verification of the machines and the plan was that by tomorrow the three testing machines will be up and running.<br \/>\nShe said they plan to issue 1 800 reports every day.<br \/>\nShe said from the minute a swab lands in the lab they can provide results within 24 hours.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is what my office is trying to accomplish,\u201d Dr Lephoto said.<br \/>\n\u201cThere are not enough workers at the Covid-19 testing labs,\u201d she said.<br \/>\nShe said they will have to recruit the necessary workforce to operate 24 hours.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy next week we are expecting to reach high numbers of tests,\u201d she said.<br \/>\nShe said they also want to have a fixed time to release results everyday even though their systems are not ready for that now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. LESOTHO can now test 2 000 people for Covid-19 per day, thanks to a new testing station that was launched by Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro on Tuesday. Speaking at the launch, Dr Majoro said testing has to be enhanced so that the exact numbers of people infected by Covid-19 can be known [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":2702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8,16],"tags":[233,246,270,245],"class_list":["post-2703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-covid-19","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lesotho to step up Covid-19 tests - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lesotho to step up Covid-19 tests\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. LESOTHO can now test 2 000 people for Covid-19 per day, thanks to a new testing station that was launched by Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro on Tuesday. Speaking at the launch, Dr Majoro said testing has to be enhanced so that the exact numbers of people infected by Covid-19 can be known [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-28T09:09:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/08\/img-612a000d8bce3.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Lesotho to step up Covid-19 tests\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-28T09:09:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests\"},\"wordCount\":953,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/08\/img-612a000d8bce3.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"COVID-19\",\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests\",\"name\":\"Lesotho to step up Covid-19 tests - Lesotho\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/08\/img-612a000d8bce3.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-28T09:09:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/08\/img-612a000d8bce3.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/08\/img-612a000d8bce3.jpg\",\"width\":1900,\"height\":700,\"caption\":\"Lesotho to step up Covid-19 tests\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Lesotho to step up Covid-19 tests\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\",\"name\":\"Lesotho\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Lesotho to step up Covid-19 tests - Lesotho","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Lesotho to step up Covid-19 tests","og_description":"Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. LESOTHO can now test 2 000 people for Covid-19 per day, thanks to a new testing station that was launched by Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro on Tuesday. Speaking at the launch, Dr Majoro said testing has to be enhanced so that the exact numbers of people infected by Covid-19 can be known [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests","og_site_name":"Lesotho","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2021-08-28T09:09:40+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1900,"height":700,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/08\/img-612a000d8bce3.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Lesotho to step up Covid-19 tests","datePublished":"2021-08-28T09:09:40+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests"},"wordCount":953,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/08\/img-612a000d8bce3.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Lesotho","COVID-19","Lesotho"],"articleSection":["all news","community","homepage-english","twitter"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests","name":"Lesotho to step up Covid-19 tests - Lesotho","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/08\/img-612a000d8bce3.jpg","datePublished":"2021-08-28T09:09:40+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/08\/img-612a000d8bce3.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/08\/img-612a000d8bce3.jpg","width":1900,"height":700,"caption":"Lesotho to step up Covid-19 tests"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-to-step-up-covid-19-tests#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lesotho to step up Covid-19 tests"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/","name":"Lesotho","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}