The report that the Council for Scientific and Industries Research (CSIR) is awaiting approval for the commercial release of the country’s first genetically modified food crop and the declaration that Ghana has no patient in any of the COVID-19 isolation centres across the country are some of the trending stories in Ghanaian press on Monday.
The Graphic reports that the Council for Scientific and Industries Research (CSIR) is awaiting approval for the commercial release of the country’s first genetically modified (GM) food crop, an insect-resistant cowpea.
A document on the new variety is currently before the Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) for review and approval after which it will be sent to the National Biosafety Authority for final approval and subsequent commercialisation.
The Principal Investigator of Pod-borer Resistant of Cowpea Project at CSIR, Dr Jerry Nboyine, made this known to the Daily Graphic at a media engagement on October 15 in Accra.
“We have prepared a document on the product and it is currently awaiting approval from SARI. Once that is done, we will send it to the National Biosafety Authority (NBA) for final approval and subsequent commercialisation,” he said.
He explained that the document consisted of all the works done on the new variety of cowpea genetically engineered to provide built-in resistance to the insect.
Once it was approved, he said the NBA would grant permits to the CSIR to cultivate the new variety out of confinement.
The newspaper says that active cases of the Coronavirus disease in Ghana is now 398 as of Friday, October 16, 2020, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said.
The President in his 18th address to the nation on the measures taken to respond to the Coronavirus pandemic on Sunday, said that a total of 46,664 persons had also fully recovered from the virus, putting Ghana’s recovery rate at 98.5 percent.
Thirteen more deaths have occurred, bringing the total number of deaths, tragically to 310 out of a total number of 510,074 persons tested.
The rate of death, 0.5 percent continues to remain low.
He also disclosed that Ghana currently has no patient in any of the COVID-19 isolation centres across the country.
According to him, the government has nonetheless expanded the COVID-19 facilities in the country and that the facilities had been expanded from the initial two to 16.
He added that some hospitals across the country have been equipped with the capacity to test for COVID-19.
The Graphic also reports that Ghana will not extend the COVID-19 PCR negative test period of three days to at least five days before boarding the flight as being advocated by some passengers who intend to travel to Ghana, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has stressed.
According to President Akufo-Addo, he is aware that some passengers are calling for government to extend the PCR negative test period before boarding the flight from three days to at least five days.
Addressing the nation on Sunday night, President Akufo-Addo said: “I believe, in the context of the second wave of infections that is engulfing so many countries of Europe and America, that we (Ghana) have to insist on the three-day period.
“It is better to be safe than sorry,” President Akufo-Addo said during a national address which was his 18th on measures being taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Ghana since it was first recorded in Ghana in March 2020.
The president explained that following the provision of testing facilities, which ensure the speed and accuracy of COVID-19 testing, Kotoka International Airport (KIA) was reopened on September 1, 2020.
The Times reports that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary candidate (PC) for Yapei-Kusugu constituency, in the Savannah Region, Mr. Abu Mahama Abu, popularly called Abu Kamara, has died in a car accident, at Dotoyili, near Tamale, in the Northern Region.
Two of his campaign team members, Kotochi Majeed and Abu Adam, who were travelling with Mr Abu in a Toyota Highlander, also died on the spot.
They were said to be returning to Tamale after a campaign trip when their vehicle collided head on with an articulated truck, at Dotoyili, at about 11:30pm last Friday.
Fuseini Kotochi, who was driving the Toyota Highlander, was in critical condition at the Tamale Teaching Hospital.
An eyewitness told the Ghanaian Times that the vehicle was totally mangled.
GIK/APA