Four more cases of Coronavirus have been confirmed in Ghana.
This brings to six, the total number of cases reported in the country.
This was announced on Sunday, March 15, 2020 by the government at a press briefing to update citizens on the outbreak of the Covid-19 in the country.
The government said three of the cases were recorded in Accra while one other was recorded in the Obuasi in the Ashanti Region.
The Director of Public Health at Ghana Health Service, Dr. Badu Sarkodie who provided updates on the country’s cases said the new cases were also imported into the country.
He said two of the cases were confirmed on 13th of March 2020 while the other two were confirmed on 14th March, 2020.
Cases confirmed on 13th March, 2020
Dr. Badu Sarkodie said, “On Friday, 13th March, 2020 two more cases were confirmed as Covid-19. They were reported in two regions. One from Ashanti Region and the other in the Greater Accra Region.”
“The first is a 56-year old man, a Ghanaian who returned from a trip in the UK on the 4th of March. He stayed in UK for 10 days and came back. He developed symptoms on the 12th of March and reported to a hospital in Obuasi. The case definition met the case of that of suspected Covid-19. Samples were taken and sent to the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR) and within a short time, the lab reported that this is another confirmed case of Covid-19 within the country.”
“The second is a woman, a Ghanaian student. She travelled out to the USA, stayed there for about 10 days. She came back on the 9th of March and on the 13th of March, started having symptoms…Samples were taken to Noguchi on 13th and the same day, we had a report from Noguchi that confirmed this as another case of Covid-19.”
Both patients have been isolated and being treated.
Confirmed cases on 14th March 2020
Dr. Badu Sarkodie announced that the two additional cases were of two Ghanaian males aged 42 and 41 who travelled into the country this month.
151 contacts have been traced – Dr. Badu Sarkodie
A total number of 151 contacts have been traced to four individuals who have been confirmed with the novel coronavirus in Ghana.
“[For the] first four cases, contact tracing has started. We just confirmed the last two cases over the night and we have started mechanisms to identify the contacts. With case 1, we have identified two contacts and all the contacts are being traced. With case 2, the Norwegian, we have identified 107 contacts and we have started processes to follow up on 68 of them. We will be in touch with the rest by the close of today.”
“Case 3 is a student and for now, we have identified 12 contacts. We are still in the process to work assiduously to get more. And with the last case, the place of residence is Obuasi. Currently, we have identified 30 contacts and all the 30 contacts are being followed up,” he said.
Government dedicates website to update Ghanaians on Coronavirus
Government has also dedicated a web portal to update Ghanaians on the outbreak of the 2019 novel Coronavirus in Ghana.
It said the website will be updated every six hours with statistics and other relevant information concerning the outbreak in the country.
The portal is http://ghanahealthservice.org/covid19/.
The Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah made the announcement at the briefing.
He urged the media and Ghanaians to stop speculating over the outbreak and to resort to the website for periodic updates.
–
