Ghana is now recording an average of 400 new cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) a day, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, has said.
Speaking at a press briefing organised by the Ministry of Information to provide an update on the country’s COVID-19 case management situation in Accra yesterday, Dr Kuma-Aboagye said the cases were detected through routine surveillance and enhanced contact tracing.
He said since Ghana recorded its first COVID-19 case in March this year, there had been 21,968 positive cases recorded, out of which 17,156 people had recovered, leaving existing active cases of 4,683.
He explained that due to challenges with the country’s testing regime, there had been an accumulation of test results within an eight-day period, which had contributed to the rise in the country’s case count.
He said the period of accumulation occurred between June 26 and July 3, this year, within which 891 cases were recorded from 73 districts across the country. Giving a breakdown of the case count, Dr Kuma-Aboagye said 579 new cases were recorded from 24 districts in the Greater Accra Region within the period, the highest in the country. Some 93 cases were recorded in 18 districts in the Ashanti Region, 86 in five districts in the Western Region and 49 in six districts in Bono East, he disclosed.
The rest of the cases came from the Northern Region, where 26 cases were recorded in three districts; Central recorded 25 new cases in three districts, Eastern had 18 cases in six districts, while Western North recorded four new cases in two districts, he added.
He said the Savannah Region recorded four new cases in one district, Upper West had three cases in one district, Oti had two cases in one district, Bono East recorded one case from one district, while Volta had one new case in a district.
Three regions did not record any new cases within the period, he said. However, Dr Kuma-Aboagye observed that Ghana’s COVID-19 death rate had decreased from 0.63 per cent to 0.58 per cent. Some 129 deaths have been recorded so far.
Source:Fiilafmonline/Graphic
