The European Union has donated a generator and fuel to enhance power supply at the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) for COVID-19 testing.
The stand-alone generator is capable of supplying electricity to the NPHL’s Molecular Laboratory Unit, the EU said in a press release on Monday.
It provides uninterrupted power supply required by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing machines and will allow for testing runs of samples to be completed without errors, the EU said.
According to the EU, this donation comes in response to a call from the Ministry of Health, noting that without a secure source of stable electricity, several testing runs were aborted thereby wasting valuable time and resources in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Sometimes, electricity is not stable, and a blackout could happen in the middle of laboratory procedures. This generator will bring predictability, and this is very important for the turnaround time for the lab,” explained Dr. Mustapha Bittaye, Director of Health Services, Ministry of Health, according to the press release.
“For several weeks the Government’s COVID-19 situational reports mentioned the electricity challenges at the NPHL. The European Union naturally stepped in again to help the Gambian people in fighting this pandemic. I thank our implementing partner the International Organization for Migration for making this support a reality” – said the European Union Ambassador to the Republic of The Gambia, H.E. Attila LAJOS, according to the press release.
