Right of Reply from Dr Joaquim Chaves Laboratory regarding article “Covid-19 tests carried out by private institutions in Mozambique are not approved by WHO – National Director of Medical Assistance”

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Right of Reply from Dr Joaquim Chaves Laboratory regarding article “Covid-19 tests carried out by private institutions in Mozambique are not approved by WHO – National Director of Medical Assistance”

10:28 CAT | 23 Mar 2020

File photo: Laboratório Joaquim Chaves / Facebook

From Joaquim Chaves Laboratory to @Verdade:

“The news from the newspaper @Verdade improperly associated the name of this Laboratory with the supposed conduct of tests for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) not approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which is totally false.

“In this particularly difficult time for everyone, in which we are experiencing a pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19), the Dr Joaquim Chaves Laboratory is at the service of Public Health and maintains high quality standards in all the work that it performs and makes available to the entire population, providing laboratory methods that are the only ones validated by the WHO.

“Dr Joaquim Chaves Mozambique Laboratory performs the laboratory screening for the SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19), using the technique of nucleic acid amplification by Real-Time PCR, according to the recommendations published by the WHO on March 2, 2020: ‘Laboratory testing for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in suspected human cases; WHO interim guidance for laboratory biosafety related to COVID-19’.

“In addition, the transport of the samples for research on COVID-19 also strictly complies with the WHO recommendations available in that document. For maintaining all this rigor in our technical procedures, we are currently the most requested laboratory in Portugal to carry out COVID-19 research, having protocols with the largest hospitals in the country.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: The @Verdade news was based on a direct question to a properly identified Ministry of Health official, who made it clear that in Mozambique only the National Institute of Health conducts tests on the new coronavirus approved by WHO.

Source: A Verdade