TIG Post

Tag: Covid tests

  • Shocking: GACL made only $10 out of every $150 collected by Frontier for COVID test at Ghana’s Airport

    Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has revealed that the Ghana Airport Company, (GACL) made only $10 out of every $150 collected by Frontier for COVID test at Ghana’s Airport.

    According to him, he finds it surprising that GACL will settle for a meagre amount of $10 out of the total $150 charged.

    “It is as though somebody has put a gun to their head and they are just making all kinds of offers to frontiers which are skewed, imbalance, which are against their own interest. Will you believe that this offer letter says that though we know you are going to charge $150 per test, we are only interested in $10. We will take only ten dollars. Can you believe that? he quizzed host during an interview over the phone.

    Mr Ablakwa has extensively disclosed the contract between government and Frontiers Healthcare Services Ltd for conducting COVID-19 testing at Kotoka International Airport in 2020.

    The contract documents had been requested multiple times under the Right to Information Act but had not been provided.

    According to Ablakwa, he has managed to obtain these documents through his sources.

    The revealed details show that the contract was granted to Frontiers on August 31, 2020, with work commencing on September 1, 2020.

    The North Tongu MP, who refers to himself as the SOA Oversight, has criticized the contract award, alleging that it disregarded public procurement laws and appeared to be aimed at benefiting a select few within the government.

  • US resumes offering free at-home Covid tests

    US resumes offering free at-home Covid tests

    The US is offering free at-home Covid-19 tests again to help stop the virus from spreading during the winter months.

    More people have been going to the hospital because of Covid in the past few weeks, according to information from the CDC.

    The tests can find a new type of the virus, which has been found in a few US states.

    Americans can ask for four quick and free antigen tests.

    The government website for Covid tests started in January 2022, but it closed down before 2023 to save more supplies.

    The government under President Biden gave away 755 million Covid-19 tests by sending them through the mail.

    When the serious health problem was over in May, lots of insurance companies stopped paying for tests. This meant that people had to pay for tests themselves.

    According to the CDC’s Covid-19 tracker, there were 20,538 people hospitalized from September 3rd to September 9th. This is about 8% more than the week before.

    The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said that the test kits can be used until the end of 2023.

    There will also be directions on how people can check if extended test expiration dates are valid, because the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that test kits may last longer than what the package says.

    Last week, the Biden administration said it would give $600m (£491m) to 12 American companies that make Covid-19 tests.

    The government thinks they will get around 200 million tests from those companies.