Measures have been stepped up by public health officials to contain the rising cases of COVID-19 recently witnessed around the country.

Stakeholders involved in the fight against the pandemic met in Yaounde on Monday, February 22 to brinstorm on ways to step up measures in order to contain the recent spread of the disease.

Presided over by the Minister of Public Health, Dr Malachie Manaouda, the meeting was attended by various stakeholders from the World Health Organisation, the Centre for Disease Control and other agencies of the Ministry of Public Health.

The meeting was aimed at carrying out an efficient reflection in order to anticipate the management of the Covid-19 cases on the one hand, and urgently find ways and means to stop the transmission of the virus within our communities on the other hand.

In the presentation of the epidemiological situation made by public health specialists at the Yaounde Emergency Operations Centre, the attention of the Minister of Public Health was drawn to the issue of production of test results.

On this point, Dr Malachie Manaouda prescribed a speedy but profession run of the tests so that results are returned within 24 hours.

In this regard, it was brought to the attention of the Minister and the Secretary of State in charge of epidemics and pandemics, the need to strengthen the human resources laboratories. It should be noted here that in total, 09 Regions out of 10 are covered in laboratories for a distribution of 17 functional laboratories.

Moreover, it was decided to set up a device for securing the results of the tests, in order to avoid fraud as well as any tampering with the results.