WHO accredits public health lab coronavirus tests

Manama, Sept. 14 (BNA): The Director of Public Health Directorate in the Ministry of Health (MoH), Dr. Mariam Al Hajeri, said the results of the public health laboratory tests for (MERS-CoV) are 100% compatible with QA external labs organised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for the second time consecutively in cooperation with Australian research labs and the German virology institute. Dr. Mariam affirmed the accuracy of public health labs test results asserting the ministry's readiness and keenness on following up with the relevant bodies on latest regional and international developments and recommendations to keep the disease at bay. Coronavirus will continue to be monitored even after the hajj season to ensure comprehensive coverage and to prevent its spread, should it occur, she added. She said the highly-qualified efficient staff in our well-equipped national laboratories were able to monitor MERS cases in assessment samples with 100% quality performance. Also, our public health laboratory was able to discover hCov-229E, hCov-OC43 strains which infect humans. The World Health Organisation (WHO) conducts periodic assessment for all countries participating in its global influenza programme to verify the efficacy of lab tests for coronavirus in them, according to the Head of Public Health Laboratories, Amjad Ghanim Zayed.