West African Postgraduate College of Medical Laboratory Science Advisory Position Paper on Covid-19 Testing and Containment in Ecowas Region

Obviously, medical laboratory testing remains one of the tools successfully used in managing the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic globally. Due to the novel nature of the virus responsible for COVID-19, many countries adopted their own approaches to mitigate the impact the pandemic was having on the respective countries. The West Africa Postgraduate College of Medical Laboratory Science in contributing to managing the situation set up an ad-hoc committee to review and advise on acceptable diagnostics approaches that could be used in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. The committee of experts reviewed the scientific and professional approaches that could be used to test for COVID-19 to identify cases for isolation, treatment, management, and subsequent control of transmission. Again, the committee made recommendations of what method should be used depending on the objective one seeks to achieve not neglecting patient safety.