The COVID-19 Surveillance Intensification Network (CSIGN) team in Ghana held a final project dissemination meeting at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) in June 2022. The project aimed to enhance COVID-19 surveillance in Ghana to generate locally relevant data to guide public health responses.

The meeting was attended by co-Investigators from the University of Ghana, Ghana Health Service and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. It was chaired by Professor William Ampofo, Principal Investigator at NMIMR. Over the last two years CSIGN has helped Ghana Health Service pivot an existing national influenza surveillance system into an integrated SARS-CoV-2 and influenza surveillance platform combining diagnostic testing and whole genome sequencing. The team presented findings from the project to key stakeholders, including the Director of Public Health of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Franklin Asiedu-Bekoe.

Alongside work using the influenzas’ surveillance platform the team have also undertaken modelling studies to explore the impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions on population movement and SARS-CoV-2 transmission and assessed the impact of the COVID-19 response phonelines setup by the government. Using the experience from the project the team are looking at how they can further expand their influenza surveillance platform to provide surveillance for a wider range of respiratory pathogens in Ghana.