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"speaker_name": "Seme, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) James Nyikal",
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"content": "Because of that, Hon. Baya raised three questions in view of the two contradicting results in respect of Ms. Khalid Nafula Mwanaidi and her children. What the COVID-19 status now is, and what measures the Ministry of Health is putting in place to ensure that testing kits for COVID- 19 meet the World Health Organisation (WHO) standards. What measures the Ministry is putting in place to ensure that the tests carried out in various laboratories meet the scientific attributes of reliability, validity and consistency. In regard to the SARS-CoV-2 testing, it is always safe to repeat the test. I am actually summarising. By repeating the test, the last result shall supersede the previous. However, in the event of discrepancy between two laboratories, where one is positive and another is negative, the WHO guidelines state that the patient is advised to self-isolate and repeat the test in one week. It has in this case been advised that the test should be repeated. Simply, I agree with this. When there is doubt in an issue of illness of this public health magnitude, it is better to err in favour of safety. Although one is negative and the other positive, it is better to assume one is positive. It is safer that way. The second part of the Question seeks to know what measures the Ministry of Health is putting in place to ensure that testing kits for COVID-19 meet the WHO standards. The Ministry of Health has issued guidelines to all testing laboratories to only use WHO approved kits. The Ministry of Health has harmonised the types of testing kits to be used by various laboratories as below. All testing kits must be validated and verified by the regulator prior to use. On report files for reference, all laboratories have been advised to implement lot to lot analysis of batch of kits prior to use. All laboratories use multiplex design of testing kits that can test for more than one gene of COVID-19. This is for both the screening and confirmatory tests. It is just that they have to put a guideline. If various laboratories use kits that test for different genes – one is testing for two genes and another is testing for one or three genes – obviously, the results will be different. So, what the Ministry has said it is going to do - and we advised - is that it is going to put a standard for the country. All laboratories should use the same cut-off of what results they have. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}