The Health Ministry has directed all public health testing laboratories not to charge residents in Ghana for COVID-19 testing.

A statement dated January 27, 2021, released by the ministry said it “has decided that public COVID-19 testing laboratories providing walk-in services can charge only charge travellers for testing”.

The ministry also said, “all other walk-in requests such as ill-health, contact tracing and exposure must be done free-of-charge using public health resources.”

This comes at a time COVID-19 cases is rising steadily in the country.

Five additional deaths have taken Ghana’s total COVID-19 fatalities to 377.

The active cases have also jumped to 3, 813.

Some 616 new cases have been recorded.

The total number of confirmed cases recorded in the country so far is 62, 751 with a total of 58, 561 recoveries and discharges.