The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced, yesterday evening, Sunday, that the work of the Central Laboratory has stopped conducting any laboratory tests for suspected cases of Coronavirus, or those in contact with previous infected persons, due to the exhaustion of examination materials, which has become a real danger It will extend to the plan to confront the virus through the process of epidemiological investigation and cutting its chain.
Hundreds of samples accumulated from the hours of yesterday evening until this morning in the central laboratory, in the hope that there will be interference from any parties to try to provide the materials necessary to conduct the tests, amid attempts by the Ministry of Health to obtain them from international or other bodies through contacts with them.
Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for the Ministry of Health, said in an interview with a number of journalists, including the correspondent of "Al-Quds" dot-com, that the suspension of the only laboratory in the sector would undermine the ministry´s efforts to follow the epidemiological map, indicating that failure to provide the necessary materials would keep the laboratory suspended.
Al-Qudra held the Israeli occupation directly responsible for that, indicating that it is still practicing persistent racism under the imposition of the illegal and inhumane blockade for the fourteenth year in a row.
He called on all parties locally, regionally and internationally to provide the laboratory requirements and called on the Ministry of Health to achieve a better response to follow up the epidemiological situation and limit the spread of the virus, indicating that stopping the laboratory would mean the accumulation of laboratory samples that need to be examined and are constantly increasing, which affects the epidemiological investigation process.
The health spokesman in Gaza confirmed the existence of local, regional and international contacts in order to provide for the needs of the Ministry of Health, indicating that this needs to be translated into a tangible reality to support its urgent needs in the context of confronting Corona and discouraging the spread of the virus.
For his part, Adel Rouqa, Director of the Central Laboratory, said that there are about 850 samples that have not been examined yet, and that he expects another 1000 to 1500 samples to arrive, and that other samples are expected to accumulate.
He indicated that the number of unfinished samples will increase with the passage of hours and days, and that will cause the results of examinations for patients in hospitals or contacts to be postponed, which leads to the inability of doctors to deal with them, especially those in hospitals.
Ruqa indicated that all the distress calls made so far, none of them have been met, indicating that the situation will be dangerous.
